Method and apparatus for buffer state report

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods and apparatus for buffer state report. A method performed at a terminal device may comprise: predicting a buffer size associated with data to be transmitted; and transmitting a buffer state report, BSR, including the predicted buffer size to a network node. A method performed at a network node may comprise: receiving a buffer state report, BSR, including a predicted buffer size associated with data to be received from a terminal device; and transmitting a grant for the data according to the received BSR. The latency of data transmission from the terminal device to the network node may be reduced.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to the technology of wirelesscommunication, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for abuffer state report of a terminal device.

BACKGROUND

This section introduces aspects that may facilitate better understandingof the present disclosure. Accordingly, the statements of this sectionare to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissionsabout what is in the prior art or what is not in the prior art.

In communication systems, when a terminal device has data to betransmitted to a network node, such as the base station, the terminaldevice may firstly report to the base station about how much data ithas. Such information about how much data it has may be included in abuffer state report, BSR, from the terminal device to the network.

SUMMARY

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the detaileddescription. This summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

Certain aspects of the present disclosure and their embodiments mayprovide solutions to these or other challenges. There are, proposedherein, various embodiments which address one or more of the issuesdisclosed herein. An improved mechanism of BSR may be provided in orderto reduce latency for the data transmission from the terminal device tothe network node introduced by the BSR procedure.

A first aspect of the present disclosure provides a method performed ata terminal device, comprising: predicting a buffer size associated withdata to be transmitted; transmitting a buffer state report, BSR,including the predicted buffer size to a network node.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further comprises:receiving a grant for the data to be transmitted; and transmitting thedata.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the predicting is based on atleast one of: a size, a type, a content, or a required transmission rateof the data.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the predicting is based on atleast one of: input data from an application behaviour, a userbehaviour, a radio condition, or a traffic behaviour.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the user behaviour comprises amobility; and/or the traffic behaviour comprises a traffic pattern.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further comprises:predicting a probability associated with the predicted buffer size.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the BSR includes theprobability.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal device transmitsthe BSR, when the probability is equal to or greater than a threshold.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the threshold is configurableor fixed.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the predicting is made by anartificial intelligence algorithm.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the predicting is made by LongShort-Term Memory, LSTM, neural network model, Arima machine learningmodel, and/or reinforcement learning.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further comprises:receiving a BSR prediction configuration for the terminal device, or fora plurality of terminal devices.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal device transmitsthe BSR in uplink shared channel, UL-SCH.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal device transmitsa scheduling request, SR, for the BSR.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal device transmitsthe SR according to a SR configuration.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the SR configuration isreceived from the network node, or is pre-configured.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the BSR is configured for alogic channel, or for a logic channel group.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the BSR is configured based ona priority of the logic channel or the logical channel group.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the BSR further comprises abuffer size associated with data assigned to a logic channel.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further comprises:reporting a capability of the terminal device for supporting the BSR.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the BSR further comprises: apredicted time point or time window for transmitting the data.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the BSR further comprises: aprobability of the predicted time point or time window for transmittingthe data.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the predicted buffer size isincluded in a medium access control, MAC, control element, CE.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further comprises:receiving an indication for whether the BSR including the predictedbuffer size is enabled or disabled.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further comprises:transmitting a buffer state report, BSR, including a buffer sizeassociated with data assigned to a logical channel of the terminaldevice, when the BSR including the predicted buffer size is disabled.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the indication comprises athreshold for a probability of the predicted buffer size.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further comprises:starting a timer after transmitting the BSR including the predictedbuffer size; and/or stopping the timer after receiving the grant.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further comprises:restarting the timer, if the predicted buffer size is updated and theBSR including the predicted buffer size is retransmitted.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further comprises:retransmitting the predicted BSR, when the timer expires.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the BSR includes apredetermined logical channel identifier, LCID to indicate the predictedbuffer size.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal device comprisesa user equipment, UE.

A second aspect of the present disclosure provides a method performed ata network node, comprising: receiving a buffer state report, BSR,including a predicted buffer size associated with data to be receivedfrom a terminal device; transmitting a grant for the data according tothe received BSR.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further comprises:receiving the data.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the predicting is based on atleast one of: a size, a type, a content, or a required transmission rateof the data.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the predicting is based on atleast one of: input data from an application behaviour, a userbehaviour, a radio condition, a traffic behaviour.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the user behaviour comprises amobility; and/or the traffic behaviour comprises a traffic pattern.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further comprises:receiving a probability associated with the predicted buffer size.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the BSR includes theprobability.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal device transmitsthe BSR, when the probability is equal to or greater than a threshold.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the threshold is configurableor fixed.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further comprises:configuring a priority to a transmission of the data, based on theprobability. The priority is associated with the probability.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the predicting is made by anartificial intelligence algorithm.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the predicting is made by LongShort-Term Memory, LSTM, neural network model, Arima machine learningmodel, and/or reinforcement learning.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further comprises:transmitting a BSR prediction configuration for a terminal device, orfor a plurality of terminal devices.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal device transmitsthe BSR in uplink shared channel, UL-SCH.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal device transmitsa scheduling request, SR, for the BSR.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal device transmitsthe SR according to a SR configuration.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the SR configuration istransmitted from the network node, or is pre-configured.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the BSR is configured for alogic channel, or for a logic channel group.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the BSR is configured based ona priority of the logic channel or the logic channel group.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the BSR further comprises abuffer size associated with data assigned to a logic channel.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further comprises:receiving a capability of the terminal device for supporting the BSRincluding the predicted buffer size.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the BSR further comprises: apredicted time point or time window for transmitting the data.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the BSR further comprises: aprobability of the predicted time point or time window for transmittingthe data.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the predicted buffer size isincluded in a medium access control, MAC, control element, CE.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further comprises:transmitting an indication for whether the BSR including the predictedbuffer size is enabled.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further comprises:receiving a buffer state report, BSR, including a buffer size associatedwith data assigned to a logical channel of the terminal device, when theBSR including the predicted buffer size is disabled.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the indication comprises athreshold for a probability of the predicted buffer size.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the BSR includes apredetermined logical channel identifier, LCID to indicate the predictedbuffer size.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further comprises:scheduling another terminal device, based on the predicted buffer size.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the network node comprises abase station.

A third aspect of the present disclosure provides a terminal device,comprising: a processor; and a memory, the memory containinginstructions executable by the processor, whereby the terminal device isoperative to: predict a buffer size associated with data to betransmitted; and transmit a buffer state report, BSR, including thepredicted buffer size to a network node.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal device isoperative to perform the method according to any of embodiments of thefirst aspect.

A fourth aspect of the present disclosure provides a network node,comprising: a processor; and a memory, the memory containinginstructions executable by the processor, whereby the network node isoperative to: receive a buffer state report, BSR, including a predictedbuffer size associated with data to be received from a terminal device;and transmit a grant for the data according to the received BSR.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the network node is operativeto perform the method according to any of embodiments of the firstaspect.

A fifth aspect of the present disclosure provides a terminal device,comprising: a prediction unit, configured to predict a buffer sizeassociated with data to be transmitted; and a transmission unit,configured to transmit a buffer state report, BSR, including thepredicted buffer size to a network node.

A sixth aspect of the present disclosure provides a network node,comprising: a reception unit, configured to receive a buffer statereport, BSR, including a predicted buffer size associated with data tobe received from a terminal device; and a transmission unit, configuredto transmit a grant for the data according to the received BSR.

A seventh aspect of the present disclosure provides a computer-readablestorage medium storing instructions which when executed by at least oneprocessor, cause the at least one processor to perform the methodaccording to any one of embodiments of the first and second aspects.

Embodiments herein afford many advantages. According to embodiments ofthe present disclosure, the terminal device may predict a buffer sizeassociated with data to be transmitted; and transmit a buffer statereport, BSR, including the predicted buffer size to a network node. Thatis, instead of actually assigning the data to any logic channel thencalculating the specific buffer size in the logic channel, the BSR maybe predicted and transmitted to the network node. Thus, the time forwaiting the data to be assigned to any logic channel before the BSR isunnecessary, such that the latency of data transmission from theterminal device to the network node may be reduced.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects, features, and benefits of variousembodiments of the present disclosure will become more fully apparent,by way of example, from the following detailed description withreference to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numeralsor letters are used to designate like or equivalent elements. Thedrawings are illustrated for facilitating better understanding of theembodiments of the disclosure and not necessarily drawn to scale, inwhich:

FIG. 1 is an exemplary diagram showing physical resource grids of acommunication system;

FIG. 2A is an exemplary structure of an element in a BSR;

FIG. 2B is an exemplary structure of elements in a BSR;

FIG. 3 is an exemplary flowchart showing a UL transmission;

FIG. 4A is an exemplary flowchart showing a method performed at aterminal device, according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4B is an exemplary flowchart showing additional steps of the methodshown in FIG. 4A;

FIG. 5A is an exemplary flowchart showing a method performed at anetwork node, according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5B is an exemplary flowchart showing additional steps of the methodshown in FIG. 5A;

FIG. 6 is an exemplary flowchart showing an overview of procedure fortransmitting the BSR, according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing exemplary apparatuses suitable forpracticing the terminal device and the network node according toembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing an apparatus/computer readable storagemedium, according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a schematic showing units for the terminal device and thenetwork node, according to embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 10 is a schematic showing a wireless network in accordance withsome embodiments;

FIG. 11 is a schematic showing a user equipment in accordance with someembodiments;

FIG. 12 is a schematic showing a virtualization environment inaccordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 13 is a schematic showing a telecommunication network connected viaan intermediate network to a host computer in accordance with someembodiments;

FIG. 14 is a schematic showing a host computer communicating via a basestation with a user equipment over a partially wireless connection inaccordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 15 is a schematic showing methods implemented in a communicationsystem including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment inaccordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 16 is a schematic showing methods implemented in a communicationsystem including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment inaccordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 17 is a schematic showing methods implemented in a communicationsystem including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment inaccordance with some embodiments; and

FIG. 18 is a schematic showing methods implemented in a communicationsystem including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment inaccordance with some embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The embodiments of the present disclosure are described in detail withreference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood thatthese embodiments are discussed only for the purpose of enabling thoseskilled persons in the art to better understand and thus implement thepresent disclosure, rather than suggesting any limitations on the scopeof the present disclosure. Reference throughout this specification tofeatures, advantages, or similar language does not imply that all of thefeatures and advantages that may be realized with the present disclosureshould be or are in any single embodiment of the disclosure. Rather,language referring to the features and advantages is understood to meanthat a specific feature, advantage, or characteristic described inconnection with an embodiment is included in at least one embodiment ofthe present disclosure. Furthermore, the described features, advantages,and characteristics of the disclosure may be combined in any suitablemanner in one or more embodiments. One skilled in the relevant art willrecognize that the disclosure may be practiced without one or more ofthe specific features or advantages of a particular embodiment. In otherinstances, additional features and advantages may be recognized incertain embodiments that may not be present in all embodiments of thedisclosure.

Generally, all terms used herein are to be interpreted according totheir ordinary meaning in the relevant technical field, unless adifferent meaning is clearly given and/or is implied from the context inwhich it is used. All references to a/an/the element, apparatus,component, means, step, etc. are to be interpreted openly as referringto at least one instance of the element, apparatus, component, means,step, etc., unless explicitly stated otherwise. The steps of any methodsdisclosed herein do not have to be performed in the exact orderdisclosed, unless a step is explicitly described as following orpreceding another step and/or where it is implicit that a step mustfollow or precede another step. Any feature of any of the embodimentsdisclosed herein may be applied to any other embodiment, whereverappropriate. Likewise, any advantage of any of the embodiments may applyto any other embodiments, and vice versa. Other objectives, features andadvantages of the enclosed embodiments will be apparent from thefollowing description.

As used herein, the term “network” or “communication network” refers toa network following any suitable wireless communication standards. Forexample, the wireless communication standards may comprise new radio(NR), long term evolution (LTE), LTE-Advanced, wideband code divisionmultiple access (WCDMA), high-speed packet access (HSPA), Code DivisionMultiple Access (CDMA), Time Division Multiple Address (TDMA), FrequencyDivision Multiple Access (FDMA), Orthogonal Frequency-Division MultipleAccess (OFDMA), Single carrier frequency division multiple access(SC-FDMA) and other wireless networks. In the following description, theterms “network” and “system” can be used interchangeably. Furthermore,the communications between two devices in the network may be performedaccording to any suitable communication protocols, including, but notlimited to, the wireless communication protocols as defined by astandard organization such as 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP)or the wired communication protocols.

The term “network node” used herein refers to a network device ornetwork entity or network function or any other devices (physical orvirtual) in a communication network. For example, the network node inthe network may include a base station (BS), an access point (AP), amulti-cell/multicast coordination entity (MCE), a server node/function(such as a service capability server/application server, SCS/AS, groupcommunication service application server, GCS AS, application function,AF), an exposure node/function (such as a service capability exposurefunction, SCEF, network exposure function, NEF), a unified datamanagement, UDM, a home subscriber server, HSS, a session managementfunction, SMF, an access and mobility management function, AMF, amobility management entity, MME, a controller or any other suitabledevice in a wireless communication network. The BS may be, for example,a node B (NodeB or NB), an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB), a nextgeneration NodeB (gNodeB or gNB), a remote radio unit (RRU), a radioheader (RH), a remote radio head (RRH), a relay, a low power node suchas a femto, a pico, and so forth.

Yet further examples of the network node may comprise multi-standardradio (MSR) radio equipment such as MSR BSs, network controllers such asradio network controllers (RNCs) or base station controllers (BSCs),base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmission points, transmissionnodes, positioning nodes and/or the like.

Further, the term “network node” may also refer to any suitable functionwhich can be implemented in a network entity (physical or virtual) of acommunication network. For example, the 5G system (5GS) may comprise aplurality of NFs such as AMF (Access and mobility Function), SMF(Session Management Function), AUSF (Authentication Service Function),UDM (Unified Data Management), PCF (Policy Control Function), AF(Application Function), NEF (Network Exposure Function), UPF (User planeFunction) and NRF (Network Repository Function), RAN (radio accessnetwork), SCP (service communication proxy), etc. In other embodiments,the network function may comprise different types of NFs (such as PCRF(Policy and Charging Rules Function), etc.) for example depending on thespecific network.

The term “terminal device” refers to any end device that can access acommunication network and receive services therefrom. By way of exampleand not limitation, the terminal device refers to a mobile terminal,user equipment (UE), or other suitable devices. The UE may be, forexample, a Subscriber Station (SS), a Portable Subscriber Station, aMobile Station (MS), or an Access Terminal (AT). The terminal device mayinclude, but not limited to, a portable computer, an image captureterminal device such as a digital camera, a gaming terminal device, amusic storage and a playback appliance, a mobile phone, a cellularphone, a smart phone, a voice over IP (VoIP) phone, a wireless localloop phone, a tablet, a wearable device, a personal digital assistant(PDA), a portable computer, a desktop computer, a wearable terminaldevice, a vehicle-mounted wireless terminal device, a wireless endpoint,a mobile station, a laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), a laptop-mountedequipment (LME), a USB dongle, a smart device, a wirelesscustomer-premises equipment (CPE) and the like. In the followingdescription, the terms “terminal device”, “terminal”, “user equipment”and “UE” may be used interchangeably. As one example, a terminal devicemay represent a UE configured for communication in accordance with oneor more communication standards promulgated by the 3GPP, such as 3GPP′LTE standard or NR standard. As used herein, a “user equipment” or “UE”may not necessarily have a “user” in the sense of a human user who ownsand/or operates the relevant device. In some embodiments, a terminaldevice may be configured to transmit and/or receive information withoutdirect human interaction. For instance, a terminal device may bedesigned to transmit information to a network on a predeterminedschedule, when triggered by an internal or external event, or inresponse to requests from the communication network. Instead, a UE mayrepresent a device that is intended for sale to, or operation by, ahuman user but that may not initially be associated with a specifichuman user.

As yet another example, in an Internet of Things (IoT) scenario, aterminal device may represent a machine or other device that performsmonitoring and/or measurements, and transmits the results of suchmonitoring and/or measurements to another terminal device and/or networkequipment. The terminal device may in this case be a machine-to-machine(M2M) device, which may in a 3GPP context be referred to as amachine-type communication (MTC) device. As one particular example, theterminal device may be a UE implementing the 3GPP narrow band internetof things (NB-IoT) standard. Particular examples of such machines ordevices are sensors, metering devices such as power meters, industrialmachinery, or home or personal appliances, for example refrigerators,televisions, personal wearables such as watches etc. In other scenarios,a terminal device may represent a vehicle or other equipment that iscapable of monitoring and/or reporting on its operational status orother functions associated with its operation.

References in the specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,”“an example embodiment,” and the like indicate that the embodimentdescribed may include a particular feature, structure, orcharacteristic, but it is not necessary that every embodiment includesthe particular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, suchphrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further,when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described inconnection with an embodiment, it is submitted that it is within theknowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure,or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or notexplicitly described.

It shall be understood that although the terms “first” and “second” etc.may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements shouldnot be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguishone element from another. For example, a first element could be termed asecond element, and similarly, a second element could be termed a firstelement, without departing from the scope of example embodiments. Asused herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of oneor more of the associated listed terms.

As used herein, the phrase “at least one of A and (or) B” should beunderstood to mean “only A, only B, or both A and B.” The phrase “Aand/or B” should be understood to mean “only A, only B, or both A andB.”

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of exampleembodiments. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” areintended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearlyindicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms“comprises”, “comprising”, “has”, “having”, “includes” and/or“including”, when used herein, specify the presence of stated features,elements, and/or components etc., but do not preclude the presence oraddition of one or more other features, elements, components and/orcombinations thereof.

It is noted that these terms as used in this document are used only forease of description and differentiation among nodes, devices or networksetc. With the development of the technology, other terms with thesimilar/same meanings may also be used.

In the following description and claims, unless defined otherwise, alltechnical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning ascommonly understood by one of ordinary skills in the art to which thisdisclosure belongs.

FIG. 1 is an exemplary diagram showing physical resource grids of acommunication system.

Mobile broadband will continue to drive the demands for higher overalltraffic capacity and higher achievable end-user data rates in thewireless access network. Several scenarios in the future will requiredata rates of up to 10 Gbps in local areas. These demands for very highsystem capacity and very high end-user date rates can be met by networkswith distances between access nodes ranging from a few meters in indoordeployments up to roughly 50 m in outdoor deployments, i.e. with aninfra-structure density considerably higher than the densest networks oftoday. The wide transmission bandwidths needed to provide data rates upto 10 Gbps and above can likely only be obtained from spectrumallocations in the millimeter-wave bands. High-gain beamforming,typically realized with array antennas, can be used to mitigate theincreased pathloss at higher frequencies. Such networks includes, forexample, new radio, NR, systems.

NR supports a diverse set of use cases and a diverse set of deploymentscenarios. The latter includes deployment at both low frequencies (100sof MHz), and very high frequencies (tens of GHz). Two operationfrequency ranges are defined in NR Rel-15: FR (frequency range)1 from410 MHz to 7125 MHz and FR2 from 24.250 GHz to 52.6 GHz. 3GPP (3^(rd)generation partnership project) RAN (radio aces network) is (in NRRel-17) studying how to best support NR operation on FR2 frequencies,i.e. from 52.6 GHz to 71 GHz; the study item which includes thefollowing objectives:

Study of required changes to NR using existing DL(downlink)/UL(uplink)NR waveform to support operation between 52.6 GHz and 71 GHz;

Study of applicable numerology including subcarrier spacing, channel BW(bandwidth) (including maximum BW), and their impact to FR2 physicallayer design to support system functionality considering practical RFimpairments [RAN1, RAN4].

Identify potential critical problems to physical signal/channels, if any[RAN1].

Study of channel access mechanism, considering potential interferenceto/from other nodes, assuming beam-based operation, in order to complywith the regulatory requirements applicable to unlicensed spectrum forfrequencies between 52.6 GHz and 71 GHz [RAN1].

Note: It is clarified that potential interference impact, if identified,may require interference mitigation solutions as part of channel accessmechanism.

As shown in FIG. 1 , similar to LTE (long term evolution), NR uses OFDM(Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) in the downlink (i.e. froma network node, gNB, eNB, or base station, to a user equipment or UE).The basic NR physical resource over an antenna port can thus be seen asa time-frequency grid as illustrated in FIG. 1 , where a resource block(RB) in a 14-symbol slot is shown. A resource block corresponds to 12contiguous subcarriers in the frequency domain. Resource blocks arenumbered in the frequency domain, starting with 0 from one end of thesystem bandwidth. Each resource element corresponds to one OFDMsubcarrier during one OFDM symbol interval.

Different subcarrier spacing values are supported in NR. The supportedsubcarrier spacing values (also referred to as different numerologies)are given by Δf=(15×2{circumflex over ( )}μ) kHz where μϵ(0,1,2,3,4).Δf=15 kHz is the basic (or reference) subcarrier spacing that is alsoused in LTE.

In the time domain, downlink and uplink transmissions in NR will beorganized into equally-sized subframes of 1 ms each similar to LTE. Asubframe is further divided into multiple slots of equal duration. Theslot length for subcarrier spacing Δf=(15×2{circumflex over ( )}μ) kHzis ½{circumflex over ( )}μ ms. There is only one slot per subframe forΔf=15 kHz and a slot consists of 14 OFDM symbols.

Downlink transmissions are dynamically scheduled, i.e., in each slot thegNB transmits downlink control information (DCI) about which UE (userequipment) data is to be transmitted to and which resource blocks in thecurrent downlink slot the data is transmitted on. This controlinformation is typically transmitted in the first one or two OFDMsymbols in each slot in NR. The control information is carried on thePhysical Control Channel (PDCCH) and data is carried on the PhysicalDownlink Shared Channel (PDSCH). A UE first detects and decodes PDCCHand if a PDCCH is decoded successfully, it then decodes thecorresponding PDSCH based on the downlink assignment provided by decodedcontrol information in the PDCCH.

In addition to PDCCH and PDSCH, there are also other channels andreference signals transmitted in the downlink, including SSB(Synchronization Signal Block), CSI-RS (Channel StateInformation-Reference Signal), etc.

Uplink data transmissions, carried on Physical Uplink Shared Channel(PUSCH), can also be dynamically scheduled by the gNB by transmitting aDCI, the DCI (which is transmitted in the DL region) always indicates ascheduling time offset so that the PUSCH is transmitted in a slot in theUL region.

As described in the 3GPP TS 38.321 V 16.0.0 clause 5.4.5, the BufferStatus reporting (BSR) procedure is used to provide the serving gNB withinformation about UL data volume in the MAC (medium access control)entity. In the case of IAB (Integrated Access and Backhaul), it isadditionally used by an IAB-MT (mobile termination) to provide itsparent IAB-DU (distributed unit) with the information about the amountof the data expected to arrive at the MT of the IAB node from the MAC(medium access control) entity of its child node(s) and or UE(s)connected to it. This BSR is referred to as Pre-emptive BSR.

For any BSR other than a Pre-emptive BSR, RRC configures the followingparameters to control the BSR:

-   -   periodicBSR-Timer;    -   retxBSR-Timer;    -   logicalChannelSR-DelayTimerApplied;    -   logicalChannelSR-DelayTimer;    -   logicalChannelSR-Mask;    -   logicalChannelGroup.

Each logical channel may be allocated to an LCG using thelogicalChannelGroup. The maximum number of LCGs is eight. The MAC entitydetermines the amount of UL data available for a logical channelaccording to the data volume calculation procedure.

A BSR other than a Pre-emptive BSR shall be triggered if any of thefollowing events occur:

-   -   UL data, for a logical channel which belongs to an LCG, becomes        available to the MAC entity; and either    -   this UL data belongs to a logical channel with higher priority        than the priority of any logical channel containing available UL        data which belong to any LCG; or    -   none of the logical channels which belong to an LCG contains any        available UL data.        -   in which case the BSR is referred below to as ‘Regular BSR’;    -   UL resources are allocated and the number of padding bits is        equal to or larger than the size of the Buffer Status Report MAC        CE plus its subheader, in which case the BSR is referred below        to as ‘Padding BSR’;    -   retxBSR-Timer expires, and at least one of the logical channels        which belong to an LCG contains UL data, in which case the BSR        is referred below to as ‘Regular BSR’;    -   periodicBSR-Timer expires, in which case the BSR is referred        below to as ‘Periodic BSR’.

NOTE 1: When a Regular BSR triggering events occurs for multiple logicalchannels simultaneously, each logical channel triggers one separateRegular BSR.

If configured, a Pre-emptive BSR may be triggered for the specific caseof an IAB-MT if any of the following events occur:

-   -   a UL grant is provided to a child IAB node or UE;    -   a BSR is received from a child IAB node or UE.

For a Regular BSR, the MAC entity shall:

-   1> if the BSR is triggered for a logical channel for which    logicalChannelSR-DelayTimerApplied with value true is configured by    upper layers:    -   2> start or restart the logicalChannelSR-DelayTimer.-   1> else:    -   2> if running, stop the logicalChannelSR-DelayTimer.

For Regular and Periodic BSR, the MAC entity shall:

-   1> if more than one LCG has data available for transmission when the    MAC PDU containing the BSR is to be built:

2> report Long BSR for all LCGs which have data available fortransmission.

-   1> else:

2> report Short BSR.

For a Padding BSR, the MAC entity shall:

-   1> if the number of padding bits is equal to or larger than the size    of the Short BSR plus its subheader but smaller than the size of the    Long BSR plus its subheader:    -   2> if more than one LCG has data available for transmission when        the BSR is to be built:        -   3> if the number of padding bits is equal to the size of the            Short BSR plus its subheader:            -   4> report a Short Truncated BSR of the LCG with the                highest priority logical channel with data available for                transmission.        -   3> else:            -   4> report a Long Truncated BSR of the LCG(s) with the                logical channels having data available for transmission                following a decreasing order of the highest priority                logical channel (with or without data available for                transmission) in each of these LCG(s), and in case of                equal priority, in increasing order of LCGID.    -   2> else:        -   3> report a Short BSR.-   1> else if the number of padding bits is equal to or larger than the    size of the Long BSR plus its subheader:    -   2> report a Long BSR for all LCGs which have data available for        transmission.

For a Pre-emptive BSR, the MAC entity shall:

-   1> report a Pre-emptive BSR.

For a BSR triggered by retxBSR-Timer expiry, the MAC entity considersthat the logical channel that triggered the BSR is the highest prioritylogical channel that has data available for transmission at the time theBSR is triggered.

The MAC entity shall:

-   1> if the Buffer Status reporting procedure determines that at least    one BSR other than Pre-emptive BSR has been triggered and not    cancelled:    -   2> if UL-SCH resources are available for a new transmission and        the UL-SCH resources can accommodate the BSR MAC CE plus its        subheader as a result of logical channel prioritization:        -   3> instruct the Multiplexing and Assembly procedure to            generate the BSR MAC CE(s);        -   3> start or restart periodicBSR-Timer except when all the            generated BSRs are long or short Truncated BSRs;        -   3> start or restart retxBSR-Timer.    -   2> if a Regular BSR has been triggered and        logicalChannelSR-DelayTimer is not running:        -   3> if there is no UL-SCH resource available for a new            transmission; or        -   3> if the MAC entity is configured with configured uplink            grant(s) and the Regular BSR was triggered for a logical            channel for which logicalChannelSR-Mask is set to false; or        -   3> if the UL-SCH resources available for a new transmission            do not meet the LCP mapping restrictions (see clause            5.4.3.1) configured for the logical channel that triggered            the BSR:            -   4> trigger a Scheduling Request.-   1> if the Buffer Status reporting procedure determines that at least    one Pre-emptive BSR has been triggered and not cancelled:    -   2> if UL-SCH resources are available for a new transmission and        the UL-SCH resources can accommodate the Pre-emptive BSR MAC CE        plus its subheader as a result of logical channel        prioritization:        -   3> instruct the Multiplexing and Assembly procedure to            generate the Pre-emptive BSR MAC CE.    -   2> else:        -   3> trigger a Scheduling Request.

NOTE 2: UL-SCH resources are considered available if the MAC entity hasan active configuration for either type of configured uplink grants, orif the MAC entity has received a dynamic uplink grant, or if both ofthese conditions are met. If the MAC entity has determined at a givenpoint in time that UL-SCH resources are available, this need not implythat UL-SCH resources are available for use at that point in time.

For the case when Pre-emptive BSR is being sent, a MAC PDU may containone BSR MAC CE for Pre-emptive BSR, and one BSR MAC CE for BSR otherthan Pre-emptive BSR. A MAC PDU not containing a BSR MAC CE forPre-emptive BSR shall contain at most one BSR MAC CE, even when multipleevents have triggered a BSR. The Regular BSR and the Periodic BSR shallhave precedence over the padding BSR.

The MAC entity shall restart retxBSR-Timer upon reception of a grant fortransmission of new data on any UL-SCH.

All triggered BSRs other than Pre-emptive BSR may be cancelled when theUL grant(s) can accommodate all pending data available for transmissionbut is not sufficient to additionally accommodate the BSR MAC CE plusits subheader. All BSRs other than Pre-emptive BSR triggered prior toMAC PDU assembly shall be cancelled when a MAC PDU (protocol data unit)is transmitted, regardless of LBT (listen before talk) failureindication from lower layers, and this PDU includes a Long or Short BSRMAC CE which contains buffer status up to (and including) the last eventthat triggered a BSR prior to the MAC PDU assembly. A Pre-emptive BSRshall be cancelled when a MAC PDU is transmitted and this PDU includesthe corresponding Pre-emptive BSR MAC CE.

NOTE 3: MAC PDU assembly can happen at any point in time between uplinkgrant reception and actual transmission of the corresponding MAC PDU.BSR and SR can be triggered after the assembly of a MAC PDU whichcontains a BSR MAC CE, but before the transmission of this MAC PDU. Inaddition, BSR and SR can be triggered during MAC PDU assembly.

NOTE 4: Pre-emptive BSR may be used for the case of dual-connected IABnode. It is up to network implementation to work out the associated MACentity or entities, and the associated expected amount of data. For thecase of dual-connected IAB node, there may be ambiguity in Pre-emptiveBSR calculations and interpretation by the receiving nodes in case whereBH (Backhaul) RLC (radio link control) channels mapped to differentegress Cell Groups are not mapped to different ingress LCGs.

NOTE 5: If a HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest) process isconfigured with cg-RetransmissionTimer and if the BSR is alreadyincluded in a MAC PDU for transmission by this HARQ process, but not yettransmitted by lower layers, it is up to UE implementation how to handlethe BSR content.

FIG. 2A is an exemplary structure of an element in a BSR; FIG. 2B isanother exemplary structure of elements in a BSR. 5-bit and 8-bit BufferSize fields are shown in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B respectively.

Buffer Status Report (BSR) MAC CEs consist of either:

-   -   Short BSR format (fixed size); or    -   Long BSR format (variable size); or    -   Short Truncated BSR format (fixed size);    -   Long Truncated BSR format (variable size); or    -   Pre-emptive BSR format (variable size).

The BSR formats are identified by MAC subheaders with LCIDs, includingfields in the BSR MAC CE defined as follows:

-   -   LCG ID: The Logical Channel Group ID field identifies the group        of logical channel(s) whose buffer status is being reported. The        length of the field is 3 bits;    -   LCGi: For the Long BSR format, this field indicates the presence        of the Buffer Size field for the logical channel group i. The        LCGi field set to 1 indicates that the Buffer Size field for the        logical channel group i is reported. The LCGi field set to 0        indicates that the Buffer Size field for the logical channel        group i is not reported. For the Long Truncated BSR format, this        field indicates whether logical channel group i has data        available. The LCGi field set to 1 indicates that logical        channel group i has data available. The LCGi field set to 0        indicates that logical channel group i does not have data        available;    -   Buffer Size: The Buffer Size field identifies the total amount        of data available according to the data volume calculation        procedure in TS (technical specification)s 38.322 V 16.0.0 and        38.323 V 16.0.0 across all logical channels of a logical channel        group after the MAC PDU has been built (i.e. after the logical        channel prioritization procedure, which may result the value of        the Buffer Size field to zero). The amount of data is indicated        in number of bytes. The size of the RLC and MAC headers are not        considered in the buffer size computation. The length of this        field for the Short BSR format and the Short Truncated BSR        format is 5 bits. The length of this field for the Long BSR        format and the Long Truncated BSR format is 8 bits. The values        for the 5-bit and 8-bit Buffer Size fields are shown in table 1        and table 2, respectively. For the Long BSR format and the Long        Truncated BSR format, the Buffer Size fields are included in        ascending order based on the LCGi. For the Long Truncated BSR        format the number of Buffer Size fields included is maximised,        while not exceeding the number of padding bits. For the        Pre-emptive BSR, the Buffer Size field identifies the total        amount of the data expected to arrive at the IAB-MT of the node        where the Pre-emptive BSR is triggered. Pre-emptive BSR is        identical to the Long BSR format.

NOTE 1: For the Pre-emptive BSR, if configured, the LCGs to be reported,the expected data volume calculation, the exact time to reportPre-emptive BSR and the associated LCH are left to implementation.

NOTE 2: The mapping of LCGs between the ingress and egress links of anIAB node for purposes of determining expected change in occupancy ofIAB-MT buffers (to be reported as Pre-emptive BSR) is left toimplementation.

NOTE 3: The number of the Buffer Size fields in the Long BSR and LongTruncated BSR format can be zero.

TABLE 1 Buffer size levels (in bytes) for 5-bit Buffer Size field in3GPP TS 38.321 V 16.0.0 Index BS value  0 0  1 ≤10  2 ≤14  3 ≤20  4 ≤28 5 ≤38  6 ≤53  7 ≤74  8 ≤102  9 ≤142 10 ≤198 11 ≤276 12 ≤384 13 ≤535 14≤745 15 ≤1038 16 ≤1446 17 ≤2014 18 ≤2806 19 ≤3909 20 ≤5446 21 ≤7587 22≤10570 23 ≤14726 24 ≤20516 25 ≤28581 26 ≤39818 27 ≤55474 28 ≤77284 29≤107669 30 ≤150000 31 >150000

TABLE 2 Buffer size levels (in bytes) for 8-bit Buffer Size field in3FPP TS 38.321 V 16.0.0 Index BS value 0 0 1 ≤10 2 ≤11 3 ≤12 4 ≤13 5 ≤146 ≤15 7 ≤16 8 ≤17 9 ≤18 10 ≤19 11 ≤20 12 ≤22 13 ≤23 14 ≤25 15 ≤26 16 ≤2817 ≤30 18 ≤32 19 ≤34 20 ≤36 21 ≤38 22 ≤40 23 ≤43 24 ≤46 25 ≤49 26 ≤52 27≤55 28 ≤59 29 ≤62 30 ≤66 31 ≤71 32 ≤75 33 ≤80 34 ≤85 35 ≤91 36 ≤97 37≤103 38 ≤110 39 ≤117 40 ≤124 41 ≤132 42 ≤141 43 ≤150 44 ≤160 45 ≤170 46≤181 47 ≤193 48 ≤205 49 ≤218 50 ≤233 51 ≤248 52 ≤264 53 ≤281 54 ≤299 55≤318 56 ≤339 57 ≤361 58 ≤384 59 ≤409 60 ≤436 61 ≤464 62 ≤494 63 ≤526 64≤560 65 ≤597 66 ≤635 67 ≤677 68 ≤720 69 ≤767 70 ≤817 71 ≤870 72 ≤926 73≤987 74 ≤1051 75 ≤1119 76 ≤1191 77 ≤1269 78 ≤1351 79 ≤1439 80 ≤1532 81≤1631 82 ≤1737 83 ≤1850 84 ≤1970 85 ≤2098 86 ≤2234 87 ≤2379 88 ≤2533 89≤2698 90 ≤2873 91 ≤3059 92 ≤3258 93 ≤3469 94 ≤3694 95 ≤3934 96 ≤4189 97≤4461 98 ≤4751 99 ≤5059 100 ≤5387 101 ≤5737 102 ≤6109 103 ≤6506 104≤6928 105 ≤7378 106 ≤7857 107 ≤8367 108 ≤8910 109 ≤9488 110 ≤10104 111≤10760 112 ≤11458 113 ≤12202 114 ≤12994 115 ≤13838 116 ≤14736 117 ≤15692118 ≤16711 119 ≤17795 120 ≤18951 121 ≤20181 122 ≤21491 123 ≤22885 124≤24371 125 ≤25953 126 ≤27638 127 ≤29431 128 ≤31342 129 ≤33376 130 ≤35543131 ≤37850 132 ≤40307 133 ≤42923 134 ≤45709 135 ≤48676 136 ≤51836 137≤55200 138 ≤58784 139 ≤62599 140 ≤66663 141 ≤70990 142 ≤75598 143 ≤80505144 ≤85730 145 ≤91295 146 ≤97221 147 ≤103532 148 ≤110252 149 ≤117409 150≤125030 151 ≤133146 152 ≤141789 153 ≤150992 154 ≤160793 155 ≤171231 156≤182345 157 ≤194182 158 ≤206786 159 ≤220209 160 ≤234503 161 ≤249725 162≤265935 163 ≤283197 164 ≤301579 165 ≤321155 166 ≤342002 167 ≤364202 168≤387842 169 ≤413018 170 ≤439827 171 ≤468377 172 ≤498780 173 ≤531156 174≤565634 175 ≤602350 176 ≤641449 177 ≤683087 178 ≤727427 179 ≤774645 180≤824928 181 ≤878475 182 ≤935498 183 ≤996222 184 ≤1060888 185 ≤1129752186 ≤1203085 187 ≤1281179 188 ≤1364342 189 ≤1452903 190 ≤1547213 191≤1647644 192 ≤1754595 193 ≤1868488 194 ≤1989774 195 ≤2118933 196≤2256475 197 ≤2402946 198 ≤2558924 199 ≤2725027 200 ≤2901912 201≤3090279 202 ≤3290873 203 ≤3504487 204 ≤3731968 205 ≤3974215 206≤4232186 207 ≤4506902 208 ≤4799451 209 ≤5110989 210 ≤5442750 211≤5796046 212 ≤6172275 213 ≤6572925 214 ≤6999582 215 ≤7453933 216≤7937777 217 ≤8453028 218 ≤9001725 219 ≤9586039 220 ≤10208280 221≤10870913 222 ≤11576557 223 ≤12328006 224 ≤13128233 225 ≤13980403 226≤14887889 227 ≤15854280 228 ≤16883401 229 ≤17979324 230 ≤19146385 231≤20389201 232 ≤21712690 233 ≤23122088 234 ≤24622972 235 ≤26221280 236≤27923336 237 ≤29735875 238 ≤31666069 239 ≤33721553 240 ≤35910462 241≤38241455 242 ≤40723756 243 ≤43367187 244 ≤46182206 245 ≤49179951 246≤52372284 247 ≤55771835 248 ≤59392055 249 ≤63247269 250 ≤67352729 251≤71724679 252 ≤76380419 253 ≤81338368 254 >81338368 255 Reserved

FIG. 3 is an exemplary flowchart showing a UL transmission.

As shown in FIG. 3 , the transmission delay for a UL packet using adynamic grant, can be estimated considering the below delay components:

UL latency=SR transmission time+SR processing time+grant transmissiontime+UE processing/encoding time+data transmission time+gNBprocessing/decoding   (1)

A pre-emptive BSR is introduced in NR Rel-16 for an Integrated Accessand Backhaul-Mobile Termination (IAB-MT) to indicate to its parent IABnode that there will be new data received from its child node. Asspecified in TS 38.321 V 16.0.0 clause 5.4.5, a pre-emptive BSR can betriggered for an IAB-MT for the below conditions:

-   -   UL grant is provided to child IAB node or UE;    -   BSR is received from child IAB node or UE.

For an IAB-MT, pre-emptive BSR is an optional feature. This feature isactivated in case the IAB-MT has received an RRC (Radio ResourceControl) parameter usePreBSR set as ‘True’.

With a pre-emptive BSR in an IAB-MT, its parent node can schedule grantsto this IAB-MT in advance of new data arriving at this IAB-MT. Thelatency caused by SR/BSR transmission to its parent node is thereforeavoided. In other words, the delay components “SR transmission time+SRprocessing time+grant transmission time+UE processing time” in theformula (1) can be saved.

However, the information from the child IAB node or UE about theaccurate buffer size in a logic channel of the child IAB node or UE isstill necessary. That is, the “SR transmission time+SR processingtime+grant transmission time+UE processing time” for the child IAB node,or particularly the UE is unavoidable.

FIG. 4A is an exemplary flowchart showing a method performed at aterminal device, according to embodiments of the present disclosure.Optional steps are presented in the dashed blocks.

As shown in FIG. 4A, the method performed at a terminal device maycomprise: S101, predicting a buffer size associated with data to betransmitted; and S102, transmitting a buffer state report, BSR,including the predicted buffer size to a network node.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal devicemay predict a buffer size associated with data to be transmitted; andtransmit a buffer state report, BSR, including the predicted buffer sizeto a network node. That is, instead of actually assigning the data toany logic channel then calculating the specific buffer size in the logicchannel, the BSR may be predicted and transmitted to the network node.Thus, the time for waiting the data to be assigned to any logic channelbefore the BSR is unnecessary, such that the latency of datatransmission from the terminal device to the network node may bereduced, no matter the terminal device is an IAB-MT or not.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, a predicted buffersize may be obtained in any type of terminal device. This is beneficialfor future 3GPP releases and even 6G (sixth generation) for support ofextremely high data rates in UL.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal device transmitsa scheduling request, SR, for the BSR. Particularly, the terminal devicetransmits the SR according to a specific SR configuration for apredicted buffer size.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the SR configuration isreceived from the network node, or is pre-configured. For example, theSR configuration may be fixed in the terminal device, according to anycommunication standards, or 3GPP TS.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal device transmitsthe BSR in uplink shared channel, UL-SCH, which may be grantedcorresponding to the SR, or already available to the terminal device.

Specifically, the predicted buffer size is included in a medium accesscontrol, MAC, control element, CE.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the BSR is configured for alogic channel, or for a logic channel group.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the BSR is configured based ona priority of the logic channel or the logical channel group. That is, alogic channel or a logical channel group with higher priority may beconfigured with the BSR including the predicted buffer size.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal device comprisesa user equipment, UE.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further comprises:S103, receiving a grant for the data to be transmitted; and S104,transmitting the data.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal devicemay receive the grant for the data to be transmitted, regardless ofwhether the data is already prepared in the logical channel. Thus, it ispossible for the data to be transmitted without any latency as long asit is prepared in the logic channel.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the predicting is based on atleast one of: a size, a type, a content, or a required transmission rateof the data.

According to embodiments, the terminal device may make the predicting assoon as obtaining the data itself or at least some information of thedata, such as the size, a type, a content, or a required transmissionrate. For example, the terminal device may be a mobile phone to transmita multi-media file selected by a user, or the terminal device may be avehicle to transmit a state report message automatically. When themulti-media file is selected, or when the text of the state reportmessage is generated, even before these data are assigned to a specificlogic channel, the terminal device may predict a buffer size, andtransmit a BSR including the predicted buffer size, so as to reduce thelatency.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the predicting is based on atleast one of: input data from an application behaviour, a userbehaviour, a radio condition, or a traffic behaviour.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the user behaviour comprises amobility; and/or the traffic behaviour comprises a traffic pattern.

According to embodiments, the terminal device may make the predictingeven before obtaining the data itself or information of the data. Forexample, when a user starts a social software/application, the terminaldevice may predict that the user will start a video call, or upload avideo blog soon. The terminal device may transmit BSR based on suchprediction and receive the grant in advance, even there is no actualdata generated yet. Then, when the data stream of the video call orvideo blog is generated and assigned to any logic channel by theterminal device, it can be transmitted immediately. Further, based onthe transmission rate of the continuous data stream, the grant for thefuture transmission part of the data stream can be always obtained inadvance, the latency may be reduced, and the continuity of the videocall/video blog may be improved.

In other examples, the prediction may be made based on user mobility,such as a position of the user (e.g. in office, or at home, or amusementpark). The prediction may also be based on whether the radio conditionis good or not. Further, the prediction may also be based on anyinformation about the traffic pattern, such as whether it is a trafficof mMTC: Massive Machine Type Communication, URLLC: Ultra Reliable LowLatency Communication, or eMBB: Enhanced Mobile Broadband. In otherexamples, a traffic pattern may be reflected by traffic bit rate range,traffic packet arrival interval, traffic packet size etc. A specifictraffic type may have specific bit rate range, and/or packet arrivalinterval, and/or packet size. Based on such information, the terminaldevice may be able to determine the associated traffic type.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the predicting is made by anartificial intelligence algorithm.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the predicting is made by LongShort-Term Memory, LSTM, neural network model, Arima machine learningmodel, and/or reinforcement learning.

According to an artificial intelligence algorithm, a continuousprediction may be automatically made based on a plurality ofcircumstance parameters, even in case that a fixed/accurate mathematicmapping relationship is hard to be obtained.

As shown in the FIG. 4A, the method further comprises: S105, predictinga probability associated with the predicted buffer size.

Such probability (i.e. a confidence level of the prediction) mayfunction as a basis for further actions of both the terminal device andthe network node, to avoid assigning communication resource for datawith rather low possibility to be transmitted.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the BSR includes theprobability, such that the network node may decide whether to give grantto the terminal device, based on the probability.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal device transmitsthe BSR, when the probability is equal to or greater than a threshold.That is, when the probability is rather low, the terminal device doesnot transmit such predicted buffer size at all.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the threshold is configurableor fixed.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the BSR further comprises: apredicted time point or time window for transmitting the data.Particularly, the BSR further comprises: a probability of the predictedtime point or time window for transmitting the data.

As shown in FIG. 4A, the method further comprises: S106, reporting acapability of the terminal device for supporting the BSR; S107,receiving a BSR prediction configuration for the terminal device, or fora plurality of terminal devices; S108, receiving an indication forwhether the BSR including the predicted buffer size is enabled ordisabled; S109, transmitting a buffer state report, BSR, including abuffer size associated with data assigned to a logical channel of theterminal device, when the BSR including the predicted buffer size isdisabled.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the indication comprises thethreshold for a probability of the predicted buffer size.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, BSR predictionconfiguration may be specific for a terminal device, or common to aplurality of terminal devices. Further, the terminal device may stillutilize a regular BSR with actual buffer size, when the predicted buffersize is disabled.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the BSR further comprises abuffer size associated with data assigned to a logic channel. That is,an actual buffer size in a logic channel with assigned data may also beincluded in the BSR at the same time.

Particularly, the BSR includes a predetermined logical channelidentifier, LCID to indicate the predicted buffer size, so as todistinguish the predicted buffer size and the actual buffer size.Alternatively or additionally, there may be specific field/bits in theBSR to indicate which buffer size is a predicted one.

FIG. 4B is an exemplary flowchart showing additional steps of the methodshown in FIG. 4A.

As shown in FIG. 4B, the method further comprises: S110, starting atimer after transmitting the BSR including the predicted buffer size;S111, stopping the timer after receiving the grant; S112, restarting thetimer, if the predicted buffer size is updated and the BSR including thepredicted buffer size is retransmitted, and/or S113, retransmitting thepredicted BSR, when the timer expires.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal devicemay utilize at least one timer for the predicted buffer size, forexample, the same predicted buffer size cannot be retransmitted if thetimer does not expire. However, if the new prediction or the actualbuffer size, which is different with the transmitted one, is obtainedbefore the grant, the new prediction or the actual buffer size may betransmitted and the timer may be restarted.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, both principle anddetails about how to provide a predicted buffer size are illustratedabove. Under such embodiments, the latency due to BSR may be reduced inthe communication system.

FIG. 5A is an exemplary flowchart showing a method performed at anetwork node, according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 5A, a method performed at a network node may comprise:S201, receiving a buffer state report, BSR, including a predicted buffersize associated with data to be received from a terminal device; andS202, transmitting a grant for the data according to the received BSR.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the method further comprises:S203, receiving the data.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the network node comprises abase station.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the network node maygrant communication resource for the terminal device, based on thepredicted buffer size. That is, instead of waiting for actual buffersize associating with data assigned to the logic channel of the terminaldevice, the network node may transmit grant in advance. Thus, the timefor waiting the data to be assigned to any logic channel before the BSRis unnecessary, such that the latency of data transmission from theterminal device to the network node may be reduced.

As shown in FIG. 5A, the method further comprises: S204, receiving aprobability associated with the predicted buffer size; and S205,configuring a priority to a transmission of the data, based on theprobability. The priority is associated with the probability. Forexample, the bigger the probability is, the higher the priority may be.Further, the priority may be in direct proportion to the probability.

According to the embodiments of the present disclosure, a predicted datatransmission with higher probability may be granted earlier than apredicted data transmission with lower probability. Then efficiency forthe communication resource may be improved.

As shown in FIG. 5A, the method further comprises: S206, receiving acapability of the terminal device for supporting the BSR including thepredicted buffer size; S207, transmitting a BSR prediction configurationfor a terminal device, or for a plurality of terminal devices; S208,transmitting an indication for whether the BSR including the predictedbuffer size is enabled or disabled; and S209, receiving a buffer statereport, BSR, including a buffer size associated with data assigned to alogical channel of the terminal device, when the BSR including thepredicted buffer size is disabled.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, BSR predictionconfiguration may be specific for a terminal device, or common to aplurality of terminal devices. Further, the terminal device may stillutilize a regular BSR with actual buffer size, when the predicted buffersize is disabled.

FIG. 5B is an exemplary flowchart showing additional steps of the methodshown in FIG. 5A.

As shown in FIG. 5B, the method further comprises: S210, schedulinganother terminal device, based on the predicted buffer size. Forexample, the another terminal device may be in vicinity to the terminaldevice.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, the network node mayfurther initiatively schedule other terminal devices in vicinity to theterminal device (e.g. in the same cell, same office, same home, etc.),based on the prediction from the terminal device. The latency for theother terminal devices may be further reduced, and they can expectplanned communication resources even before they transmit BSR.

FIG. 6 is an exemplary flowchart showing an overview of procedure fortransmitting the BSR, according to embodiments of the presentdisclosure.

As shown in FIG. 6 , in S601, the UE may be configured with predictionBSR, e.g. the UE has the capability and is enabled to transmit a BSRincluding predicted buffer size. Then the flow goes to S602.

In S602, the UE makes prediction about new data arrival and determineswhether the probability of the new data arrival above or equal to athreshold X %. If yes, the flow goes to S603. If no, the flow goes toS604.

In S603, the UE triggers the prediction BSR. Then the flow goes to S605.

In S605, the UE determines whether there is UL-SCH resource available.If yes, the flow goes to S607. If no, the flow goes to S606.

In S606, the UE triggers a SR. Then the flow goes to S608.

In S608, the UE receives a new grant from gNB for the BSR. Then the flowgoes to S607.

In S607, the UE generate a prediction BSR MAC CE including predictedbuffer size associated with the possible new data, and sends it to gNB.Then the flow goes to S609.

In S609, the UE receives a new grant for gNB for the data. Then the flowgoes to S610.

In S610, the UE waits for the data to arrive. Then the flow goes toS611, when the data arrives.

In S611, the UE transmits an ordinary/regular BSR plus data to gNB.

In S604, the UE waits for the data to arrive. Then the flow goes toS612, when the data arrives.

In S612, the UE triggers the regular BSR. Then the flow goes to S613.

In S613, the UE determines whether there is UL-SCH resource available.If yes, the flow goes to S614. If no, the flow goes to S615.

In S615, the UE triggers a SR. Then the flow goes to S616.

In S616, the UE receives a new grant from gNB for the BSR. Then the flowgoes to S614.

In S614, the UE generate an ordinary BSR MAC CE including actual buffersize associated with the arrived new data, and sends it to gNB. Then theflow goes to S617.

In S617, the UE receives a new grant for gNB for the data. Then the flowgoes to S618.

In S618, the UE transmits the data to gNB.

With the prediction BSR described above, embodiments of the presentdisclosure greatly extend pre-emptive BSR functionality to non-IABscenarios. In the IAB scenario it can often be determined that therewill be data at an UL node once the data has reached one of thedown-stream nodes. In other scenarios, it is not so easy to determinethat there will be UL data until it arrives in the UL UE buffer.However, in many cases it can be predicted that there will be dataarriving and this can be exploited using a pre-emptive BSR.

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, in case predictionBSR is configured for a UE, on a high level, the algorithm could be:

-   1. A gNB configures the UE to apply prediction BSR.    The configuration can include prediction algorithm, when/how often    predictions are done (e.g. every slot), trigger thresholds (amount    of predicted data, confidence levels), timer settings (prediction    BSR-prohibit timer).-   2. the UE initiates predictions of data amount in UL buffer.    If the predicted buffer level exceeds a threshold, a prediction BSR    is triggered.    -   If UL resources to transmit prediction BSR are available        -   transmit prediction BSR        -   start prediction prohibit timer    -   else        -   transmit SR, and transmit prediction BSR in grant received            as response to SR

3. When prediction BSR is transmitted, algorithm continues from (2). Nonew prediction BSRs can be transmitted until prediction prohibit timerexpires (or prediction changes above a certain threshold).

According to embodiments of the present disclosure, SR-BSR-Data latencyis reduced by triggering prediction BSR earlier than what anormal/regular BSR is triggered. Control of the amount or number ofprediction BSRs sent may be also allowed.

Further, in the below embodiments, more details about mechanisms on howto design prediction BSR are described. These embodiments may beapplicable to both IAB and non-IAB scenarios. The term pre-emptive BSRmay also interchangeably called as prediction BSR or early BSR etc. Anysimilar term is equally applicable. An ordinary/regular BSR refers to aBSR carrying actual data buffer size of a LCH or LCG. It can be any ofthe below existing BSR MAC CE.

-   -   Short BSR (fixed size); or    -   Long BSR (variable size); or    -   Short Truncated BSR (fixed size);    -   Long Truncated BSR (variable size);

In the first embodiment, in case pre-emptive BSR is configured for a UE,a Pre-emptive BSR may be triggered if any of the following events occur:

-   -   it is predicted by the UE that there will be new data arriving        at the UE, which will trigger a regular BSR after arriving;    -   it is determined by the UE that there will be new data arriving        at the UE, which will trigger a regular BSR.

In the second embodiment, in case pre-emptive BSR is configured for aUE, there is a prediction function implemented at the UE for predictingwhether and/or when there will be new data arrived at the UE, which willtrigger a regular BSR after arriving. The prediction function may useinput data from app behaviour, user behaviour (e.g. mobility), radioconditions, traffic behaviour (e.g., traffic pattern) etc., to be ableto estimate the arrival of new data, with a probability X %.

Based on above embodiment, the prediction algorithm configured to the UEby the gNB, includes a condition when the algorithm shall be applicable.This can e.g. be when the UE goes from IDLE to ACTIVE, when the UEscreen is unlocked. It should be understood that the UE may also makethe prediction in IDLE state.

In the third embodiment, in case pre-emptive BSR is configured for a UE,a Pre-emptive BSR may be triggered if it is predicted by the UE that,at >=X % probability, there will be new data arriving at the UE whichwill trigger a regular BSR, wherein X is configured to the UE or hardcoded in the any standards or technical specifications.

In the fourth embodiment, in case pre-emptive BSR is configured for aUE, a Pre-emptive BSR may be triggered if it is determined by the UEaccording to a corresponding traffic pattern that there will be new dataarrived at the UE which will trigger a regular BSR.

In the fifth embodiment, for a UE MAC entity, if there is at least onepre-emptive BSR triggered and not cancelled,

-   -   if UL-SCH resources are available for a new transmission and the        UL-SCH resources can accommodate the Pre-emptive BSR MAC CE plus        its subheader:        -   instruct the Multiplexing and Assembly procedure to generate            the Pre-emptive BSR MAC CE.    -   else:        -   trigger a Scheduling Request.

In the sixth embodiment, in case pre-emptive BSR is configured for a UE,the UE may be configured with a specific SR configuration, if there isat least one pre-emptive BSR triggered and not cancelled, while thereare no any UL-SCH resource available for a new transmission which canaccommodate the Pre-emptive BSR MAC CE plus its subheader, the UE MACcan trigger a scheduling request using this specific SR configuration.

In the seventh embodiment, a pre-emptive BSR can be configured per LCHor LCG (logic channel or logic channel group). In this case, predictionof new data can be performed per LCH or LCG. One LCH or LCG associatedwith a high priority index may be configured with pre-emptive BSR, whileanother LCH or LCG associated with a low priority index may be notconfigured with pre-emptive BSR. An LCH/LCG priority index threshold maybe configured to the UE. In this case, an LCH/LCG associated with apriority index above the configured threshold can apply pre-emptive BSR,while an LCH/LCG associated with a priority index lower than theconfigured threshold will not apply pre-emptive BSR.

In the eighth embodiment, a pre-emptive BSR MAC CE and an ordinary BSRMAC CE (i.e., carries the actual buffer size of a LCH/LCG) may beincluded in a same MAC PDU.

In the ninth embodiment, the other ordinary BSR MAC CE is not allowed tobe carried with a pre-emptive BSR in a same MAC PDU.

In the tenth embodiment, in a same BSR MAC CE, both a predicted ordetermined buffer size (BS) upon trigger of a pre-emptive BSR for an LCHor LCG and an actual BS upon trigger of an ordinary BSR for another LCGor LCG can be included together. In this case, a new BSR MAC CE formatmay be defined accordingly. The new format may include specificfield/bit, or LCH ID values to indicated which one is a prediction, andwhich one is actual.

In the eleventh embodiment, a UE capability bit indicating whether theUE supports pre-emptive BSR is defined.

In the twelfth embodiment, whenever a UE has predicted with certain X %probability of data arrival of Y volume, regardless what value X and/orY is, the UE is allowed to trigger a pre-emptive BSR. In this case, theUE can include information X or both X and Y to the gNB via apre-emptive BSR MAC CE. Because the existing pre-emptive BSR MAC CEdoesn't contain a prediction probability field, a new pre-emptive BSRMAC CE format may be defined accordingly. After receiving the BSR, thegNB may decide whether to allocate resources to the UE or not; and ifallocated whether to allocate full resource to accommodate the UE'sprobable data or partial resource (e.g., X % of Y) as the prediction isnot 100% from UE side. In this new pre-emptive BSR MAC CE format, a UEcan include a time parameter for which it needs allocation for itstransmission. The time can be specific time symbols/slots or atime-window in future. The time parameter can also have associatedprobability, which depicts the probability of data arrival in the bufferduring that probable time instants.

In the thirteenth embodiment, for a UE, the gNB can configured thepriority to the prediction of the data arrival in the BSR reporting. Fore.g., the probability of data arrival between 0 to P % will becategorized low priority, the percentage between P % and Q % as moderatepriority and between Q % and 100% as high priority, where 0<P<Q<100.

In the fourteenth embodiment, a pre-emptive BSR MAC CE carriesestimated/predicted buffer size (BS) for LCHs/LCGs which are configuredwith pre-emptive BSR.

In the fifteenth embodiment, a pre-emptive BSR MAC CE carriesestimated/predicted buffer size (BS) for LCHs which are configured withpre-emptive BSR and at least one BS for an LCH/LCG which are notconfigured with pre-emptive BSR (i.e., the actual BS of the availabledata).

In the sixteenth embodiment, a pre-emptive-prohibit timer is defined.This timer is started when a pre-emptive BSR MAC CE is transmitted. Thetimer is stopped if the UE receives a grant (in response to thepre-emptive BSR). While the timer is running, no new pre-emptive BSR MACCE may be transmitted corresponding to the same LCH/LCG for which theoriginal pre-emptive BSR was triggered. This timer is used to preventthe UL from being flooded by pre-emptive BSRs triggered by newpredictions.

In another embodiment, the pre-emptive-prohibit timer is stopped if anew prediction indicates a large change compared to the last pre-emptiveBSR. The change can be with respect to the predicted data size, thepredicted time of the data arrival or the confidence with which theprediction is made (e.g., the prediction probability).

In another embodiment, a retransmission timer is used for thepre-emptive BSR. This is used to give updates of the predictions in acontrolled manner In contrast to the pre-emptive BSR prohibit timer, aretransmission timer can update a previous prediction and report even ifthe new prediction does not fulfill the normal triggering threshold. Inthis way, it may indicate that the new prediction indicates less data ora less reliable prediction than what was previously reported.

In another embodiment, the prediction algorithm used by the UE may beconfigured. In some cases, this may be a UE specific algorithm, or itcan be a specific publicly available algorithm. The available algorithmscan be hard coded in the appropriate 3GPP specification.

In another embodiment, the UE reports the UE predication results to thegNB.

In the above embodiment, the UE includes a condition when thisprediction occurs, e.g. the BSR probability X % of Y bytes after Z timewhen the UE state changes from IDLE to ACTIVE.

In the above embodiment, the gNB can use the said UE prediction reportin above embodiment and configure another UE (in same cell) with theseparameters.

In another embodiment, in order to distinguish a pre-emptive BSR MAC CEfrom an ordinary BSR MAC CE, a new logical channel ID (LCID) foridentifying the pre-emptive BSR MAC CE is defined.

According to these detailed embodiments of the present disclosure,specific manners of how to apply the prediction BSR in differentcircumstances may be illustrated more clearly.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing exemplary apparatuses suitable forpracticing the terminal device, and the network node according toembodiments of the disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 7 , the terminal device 100 may comprise: a processor101; and a memory 102. The memory 102 contains instructions executableby the processor 101, whereby the terminal device 100 is operative to:predict a buffer size associated with data to be transmitted; andtransmit a buffer state report, BSR, including the predicted buffer sizeto a network node.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal device 100 isoperative to perform the method according to any of the aboveembodiments, such as these shown in FIG. 4A-4B, 6 .

As shown in FIG. 7 , the network node 200 may comprise: a processor 201;and a memory 202. The memory 202 contains instructions executable by theprocessor 201, whereby the network node 200 is operative to: receive abuffer state report, BSR, including a predicted buffer size associatedwith data to be received from a terminal device; and transmit a grantfor the data according to the received BSR.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal device 100 isoperative to perform the method according to any of the aboveembodiments, such as these shown in FIG. 5A-6 .

The processors 101, 201 may be any kind of processing component, such asone or more microprocessor or microcontrollers, as well as other digitalhardware, which may include digital signal processors (DSPs),special-purpose digital logic, and the like. The memories 102, 202 maybe any kind of storage component, such as read-only memory (ROM),random-access memory, cache memory, flash memory devices, opticalstorage devices, etc.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing an apparatus/computer readable storagemedium, according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 8 , the computer-readable storage medium 700, or anyother kind of product, storing instructions 701 which when executed byat least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform themethod according to any one of the above embodiments, such as theseshown in FIG. 4A-6 .

In addition, the present disclosure may also provide a carriercontaining the computer program as mentioned above, wherein the carrieris one of an electronic signal, optical signal, radio signal, orcomputer readable storage medium. The computer readable storage mediumcan be, for example, an optical compact disk or an electronic memorydevice like a RAM (random access memory), a ROM (read only memory),Flash memory, magnetic tape, CD-ROM, DVD, Blue-ray disc and the like.

FIG. 9 is a schematic showing units for terminal device and the networknode, according to embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 9 , the terminal device 100 may comprise: a predictionunit 8101, configured to predict a buffer size associated with data tobe transmitted; and a transmission unit 8102, configured to transmit abuffer state report, BSR, including the predicted buffer size to anetwork node.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal device 100 isoperative to perform the method according to any of the aboveembodiments, such as these shown in FIG. 4A-4B, 6 .

As shown in FIG. 9 , the network node 200 may comprise: a reception unit8201, configured to receive a buffer state report, BSR, including apredicted buffer size associated with data to be received from aterminal device; and a transmission unit 8202, configured to transmit agrant for the data according to the received BSR.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the network node 200 isoperative to perform the method according to any of the aboveembodiments, such as these shown in FIG. 5A-6 .

The term ‘unit’ may have conventional meaning in the field ofelectronics, electrical devices and/or electronic devices and mayinclude, for example, electrical and/or electronic circuitry, devices,modules, processors, memories, logic solid state and/or discretedevices, computer programs or instructions for carrying out respectivetasks, procedures, computations, outputs, and/or displaying functions,and so on, as such as those that are described herein.

With these units, the network node 100 may not need a fixed processor ormemory, any computing resource and storage resource may be arranged fromat least one network node/device/entity/apparatus relating to thecommunication system. The virtualization technology and networkcomputing technology (e.g. cloud computing) may be further introduced,so as to improve the usage efficiency of the network resources and theflexibility of the network.

The techniques described herein may be implemented by various means sothat an apparatus implementing one or more functions of a correspondingapparatus described with an embodiment comprises not only prior artmeans, but also means for implementing the one or more functions of thecorresponding apparatus described with the embodiment and it maycomprise separate means for each separate function, or means that may beconfigured to perform two or more functions. For example, thesetechniques may be implemented in hardware (one or more apparatuses),firmware (one or more apparatuses), software (one or more modules), orcombinations thereof. For a firmware or software, implementation may bemade through modules (e.g., procedures, functions, and so on) thatperform the functions described herein.

Particularly, these function units may be implemented either as anetwork element on a dedicated hardware, as a software instance runningon a dedicated hardware, or as a virtualized function instantiated on anappropriate platform, e.g. on a cloud infrastructure.

FIG. 10 is a schematic showing a wireless network in accordance withsome embodiments.

Although the subject matter described herein may be implemented in anyappropriate type of system using any suitable components, theembodiments disclosed herein are described in relation to a wirelessnetwork, such as the example wireless network illustrated in FIG. 10 .For simplicity, the wireless network of FIG. 10 only depicts network1006, network nodes 1060 (corresponding to network node 200) and 1060 b,and WDs 1010, 1010 b, and 1010 c (corresponding to terminal device 100).In practice, a wireless network may further include any additionalelements suitable to support communication between wireless devices orbetween a wireless device and another communication device, such as alandline telephone, a service provider, or any other network node or enddevice. Of the illustrated components, network node 1060 and wirelessdevice (WD) 1010 are depicted with additional detail. The wirelessnetwork may provide communication and other types of services to one ormore wireless devices to facilitate the wireless devices' access toand/or use of the services provided by, or via, the wireless network.

The wireless network may comprise and/or interface with any type ofcommunication, telecommunication, data, cellular, and/or radio networkor other similar type of system. In some embodiments, the wirelessnetwork may be configured to operate according to specific standards orother types of predefined rules or procedures. Thus, particularembodiments of the wireless network may implement communicationstandards, such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM),Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Long Term Evolution(LTE), and/or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, or 5G standards; wireless localarea network (WLAN) standards, such as the IEEE 802.11 standards; and/orany other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as theWorldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Bluetooth,Z-Wave and/or ZigBee standards.

Network 1006 may comprise one or more backhaul networks, core networks,IP networks, public switched telephone networks (PSTNs), packet datanetworks, optical networks, wide-area networks (WANs), local areanetworks (LANs), wireless local area networks (WLANs), wired networks,wireless networks, metropolitan area networks, and other networks toenable communication between devices.

Network node 1060 and WD 1010 comprise various components described inmore detail below. These components work together in order to providenetwork node and/or wireless device functionality, such as providingwireless connections in a wireless network. In different embodiments,the wireless network may comprise any number of wired or wirelessnetworks, network nodes, base stations, controllers, wireless devices,relay stations, and/or any other components or systems that mayfacilitate or participate in the communication of data and/or signalswhether via wired or wireless connections.

As used herein, network node refers to equipment capable, configured,arranged and/or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with awireless device and/or with other network nodes or equipment in thewireless network to enable and/or provide wireless access to thewireless device and/or to perform other functions (e.g., administration)in the wireless network. Examples of network nodes include, but are notlimited to, access points (APs) (e.g., radio access points), basestations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs(eNBs) and NR NodeBs (gNBs)). Base stations may be categorized based onthe amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, theirtransmit power level) and may then also be referred to as femto basestations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro basestations. A base station may be a relay node or a relay donor nodecontrolling a relay. A network node may also include one or more (orall) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralizeddigital units and/or remote radio units (RRUs), sometimes referred to asRemote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such remote radio units may or may not beintegrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio. Parts of adistributed radio base station may also be referred to as nodes in adistributed antenna system (DAS). Yet further examples of network nodesinclude multi-standard radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, networkcontrollers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base stationcontrollers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmissionpoints, transmission nodes, multi-cell/multicast coordination entities(MCEs), core network nodes (e.g., MSCs, MMEs), O&M nodes, OSS nodes, SONnodes, positioning nodes (e.g., E-SMLCs), and/or MDTs. As anotherexample, a network node may be a virtual network node as described inmore detail below. More generally, however, network nodes may representany suitable device (or group of devices) capable, configured, arranged,and/or operable to enable and/or provide a wireless device with accessto the wireless network or to provide some service to a wireless devicethat has accessed the wireless network.

In FIG. 10 , network node 1060 includes processing circuitry 1070,device readable medium 1080, interface 1090, auxiliary equipment 1084,power source 1086, power circuitry 1087, and antenna 1062. Althoughnetwork node 1060 illustrated in the example wireless network of FIG. 10may represent a device that includes the illustrated combination ofhardware components, other embodiments may comprise network nodes withdifferent combinations of components. It is to be understood that anetwork node comprises any suitable combination of hardware and/orsoftware needed to perform the tasks, features, functions and methodsdisclosed herein. Moreover, while the components of network node 1060are depicted as single boxes located within a larger box, or nestedwithin multiple boxes, in practice, a network node may comprise multipledifferent physical components that make up a single illustratedcomponent (e.g., device readable medium 1080 may comprise multipleseparate hard drives as well as multiple RAM modules).

Similarly, network node 1060 may be composed of multiple physicallyseparate components (e.g., a NodeB component and a RNC component, or aBTS component and a BSC component, etc.), which may each have their ownrespective components. In certain scenarios in which network node 1060comprises multiple separate components (e.g., BTS and BSC components),one or more of the separate components may be shared among severalnetwork nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multiple NodeB's.In such a scenario, each unique NodeB and RNC pair, may in someinstances be considered a single separate network node. In someembodiments, network node 1060 may be configured to support multipleradio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some componentsmay be duplicated (e.g., separate device readable medium 1080 for thedifferent RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., the sameantenna 1062 may be shared by the RATs). Network node 1060 may alsoinclude multiple sets of the various illustrated components fordifferent wireless technologies integrated into network node 1060, suchas, for example, GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, or Bluetooth wirelesstechnologies. These wireless technologies may be integrated into thesame or different chip or set of chips and other components withinnetwork node 1060.

Processing circuitry 1070 is configured to perform any determining,calculating, or similar operations (e.g., certain obtaining operations)described herein as being provided by a network node. These operationsperformed by processing circuitry 1070 may include processinginformation obtained by processing circuitry 1070 by, for example,converting the obtained information into other information, comparingthe obtained information or converted information to information storedin the network node, and/or performing one or more operations based onthe obtained information or converted information, and as a result ofsaid processing making a determination.

Processing circuitry 1070 may comprise a combination of one or more of amicroprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit,digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, fieldprogrammable gate array, or any other suitable computing device,resource, or combination of hardware, software and/or encoded logicoperable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other networknode 1060 components, such as device readable medium 1080, network node1060 functionality. For example, processing circuitry 1070 may executeinstructions stored in device readable medium 1080 or in memory withinprocessing circuitry 1070. Such functionality may include providing anyof the various wireless features, functions, or benefits discussedherein. In some embodiments, processing circuitry 1070 may include asystem on a chip (SOC).

In some embodiments, processing circuitry 1070 may include one or moreof radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1072 and basebandprocessing circuitry 1074. In some embodiments, radio frequency (RF)transceiver circuitry 1072 and baseband processing circuitry 1074 may beon separate chips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radiounits and digital units. In alternative embodiments, part or all of RFtransceiver circuitry 1072 and baseband processing circuitry 1074 may beon the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units

In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality describedherein as being provided by a network node, base station, eNB or othersuch network device may be performed by processing circuitry 1070executing instructions stored on device readable medium 1080 or memorywithin processing circuitry 1070. In alternative embodiments, some orall of the functionality may be provided by processing circuitry 1070without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete devicereadable medium, such as in a hard-wired manner In any of thoseembodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a device readablestorage medium or not, processing circuitry 1070 can be configured toperform the described functionality. The benefits provided by suchfunctionality are not limited to processing circuitry 1070 alone or toother components of network node 1060, but are enjoyed by network node1060 as a whole, and/or by end users and the wireless network generally.

Device readable medium 1080 may comprise any form of volatile ornon-volatile computer readable memory including, without limitation,persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory,magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-onlymemory (ROM), mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removablestorage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or aDigital Video Disk (DVD)), and/or any other volatile or non-volatile,non-transitory device readable and/or computer-executable memory devicesthat store information, data, and/or instructions that may be used byprocessing circuitry 1070. Device readable medium 1080 may store anysuitable instructions, data or information, including a computerprogram, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules,code, tables, etc. and/or other instructions capable of being executedby processing circuitry 1070 and, utilized by network node 1060. Devicereadable medium 1080 may be used to store any calculations made byprocessing circuitry 1070 and/or any data received via interface 1090.In some embodiments, processing circuitry 1070 and device readablemedium 1080 may be considered to be integrated.

Interface 1090 is used in the wired or wireless communication ofsignalling and/or data between network node 1060, network 1006, and/orWDs 1010. As illustrated, interface 1090 comprises port(s)/terminal(s)1094 to send and receive data, for example to and from network 1006 overa wired connection. Interface 1090 also includes radio front endcircuitry 1092 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a partof, antenna 1062. Radio front end circuitry 1092 comprises filters 1098and amplifiers 1096. Radio front end circuitry 1092 may be connected toantenna 1062 and processing circuitry 1070. Radio front end circuitrymay be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna 1062and processing circuitry 1070. Radio front end circuitry 1092 mayreceive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes orWDs via a wireless connection. Radio front end circuitry 1092 mayconvert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriatechannel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters 1098and/or amplifiers 1096. The radio signal may then be transmitted viaantenna 1062. Similarly, when receiving data, antenna 1062 may collectradio signals which are then converted into digital data by radio frontend circuitry 1092. The digital data may be passed to processingcircuitry 1070. In other embodiments, the interface may comprisedifferent components and/or different combinations of components.

In certain alternative embodiments, network node 1060 may not includeseparate radio front end circuitry 1092, instead, processing circuitry1070 may comprise radio front end circuitry and may be connected toantenna 1062 without separate radio front end circuitry 1092. Similarly,in some embodiments, all or some of RF transceiver circuitry 1072 may beconsidered a part of interface 1090. In still other embodiments,interface 1090 may include one or more ports or terminals 1094, radiofront end circuitry 1092, and RF transceiver circuitry 1072, as part ofa radio unit (not shown), and interface 1090 may communicate withbaseband processing circuitry 1074, which is part of a digital unit (notshown).

Antenna 1062 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays,configured to send and/or receive wireless signals. Antenna 1062 may becoupled to radio front end circuitry 1090 and may be any type of antennacapable of transmitting and receiving data and/or signals wirelessly. Insome embodiments, antenna 1062 may comprise one or moreomni-directional, sector or panel antennas operable to transmit/receiveradio signals between, for example, 2 GHz and 66 GHz. Anomni-directional antenna may be used to transmit/receive radio signalsin any direction, a sector antenna may be used to transmit/receive radiosignals from devices within a particular area, and a panel antenna maybe a line of sight antenna used to transmit/receive radio signals in arelatively straight line. In some instances, the use of more than oneantenna may be referred to as MIMO. In certain embodiments, antenna 1062may be separate from network node 1060 and may be connectable to networknode 1060 through an interface or port.

Antenna 1062, interface 1090, and/or processing circuitry 1070 may beconfigured to perform any receiving operations and/or certain obtainingoperations described herein as being performed by a network node. Anyinformation, data and/or signals may be received from a wireless device,another network node and/or any other network equipment. Similarly,antenna 1062, interface 1090, and/or processing circuitry 1070 may beconfigured to perform any transmitting operations described herein asbeing performed by a network node. Any information, data and/or signalsmay be transmitted to a wireless device, another network node and/or anyother network equipment.

Power circuitry 1087 may comprise, or be coupled to, power managementcircuitry and is configured to supply the components of network node1060 with power for performing the functionality described herein. Powercircuitry 1087 may receive power from power source 1086. Power source1086 and/or power circuitry 1087 may be configured to provide power tothe various components of network node 1060 in a form suitable for therespective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed foreach respective component). Power source 1086 may either be included in,or external to, power circuitry 1087 and/or network node 1060. Forexample, network node 1060 may be connectable to an external powersource (e.g., an electricity outlet) via an input circuitry or interfacesuch as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source suppliespower to power circuitry 1087. As a further example, power source 1086may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery packwhich is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitry 1087. Thebattery may provide backup power should the external power source fail.Other types of power sources, such as photovoltaic devices, may also beused.

Alternative embodiments of network node 1060 may include additionalcomponents beyond those shown in FIG. 10 that may be responsible forproviding certain aspects of the network node's functionality, includingany of the functionality described herein and/or any functionalitynecessary to support the subject matter described herein. For example,network node 1060 may include user interface equipment to allow input ofinformation into network node 1060 and to allow output of informationfrom network node 1060. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic,maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for network node1060.

As used herein, wireless device (WD) refers to a device capable,configured, arranged and/or operable to communicate wirelessly withnetwork nodes and/or other wireless devices. Unless otherwise noted, theterm WD may be used interchangeably herein with user equipment (UE).Communicating wirelessly may involve transmitting and/or receivingwireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infraredwaves, and/or other types of signals suitable for conveying informationthrough air. In some embodiments, a WD may be configured to transmitand/or receive information without direct human interaction. Forinstance, a WD may be designed to transmit information to a network on apredetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event,or in response to requests from the network. Examples of a WD include,but are not limited to, a smart phone, a mobile phone, a cell phone, avoice over IP (VoIP) phone, a wireless local loop phone, a desktopcomputer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless cameras, agaming console or device, a music storage device, a playback appliance,a wearable terminal device, a wireless endpoint, a mobile station, atablet, a laptop, a laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), a laptop-mountedequipment (LME), a smart device, a wireless customer-premise equipment(CPE), a vehicle-mounted wireless terminal device, etc. A WD may supportdevice-to-device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3GPPstandard for sidelink communication, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V),vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), vehicle-to-everything (V2X) and may inthis case be referred to as a D2D communication device. As yet anotherspecific example, in an Internet of Things (IoT) scenario, a WD mayrepresent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and/ormeasurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring and/ormeasurements to another WD and/or a network node. The WD may in thiscase be a machine-to-machine (M2M) device, which may in a 3GPP contextbe referred to as an MTC device. As one particular example, the WD maybe a UE implementing the 3GPP narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT)standard. Particular examples of such machines or devices are sensors,metering devices such as power meters, industrial machinery, or home orpersonal appliances (e.g. refrigerators, televisions, etc.) personalwearables (e.g., watches, fitness trackers, etc.). In other scenarios, aWD may represent a vehicle or other equipment that is capable ofmonitoring and/or reporting on its operational status or other functionsassociated with its operation. A WD as described above may represent theendpoint of a wireless connection, in which case the device may bereferred to as a wireless terminal. Furthermore, a WD as described abovemay be mobile, in which case it may also be referred to as a mobiledevice or a mobile terminal.

As illustrated, wireless device 1010 includes antenna 1011, interface1014, processing circuitry 1020, device readable medium 1030, userinterface equipment 1032, auxiliary equipment 1034, power source 1036and power circuitry 1037. WD 1010 may include multiple sets of one ormore of the illustrated components for different wireless technologiessupported by WD 1010, such as, for example, GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi,WiMAX, or Bluetooth wireless technologies, just to mention a few. Thesewireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chipsor set of chips as other components within WD 1010.

Antenna 1011 may include one or more antennas or antenna arrays,configured to send and/or receive wireless signals, and is connected tointerface 1014. In certain alternative embodiments, antenna 1011 may beseparate from WD 1010 and be connectable to WD 1010 through an interfaceor port. Antenna 1011, interface 1014, and/or processing circuitry 1020may be configured to perform any receiving or transmitting operationsdescribed herein as being performed by a WD. Any information, dataand/or signals may be received from a network node and/or another WD. Insome embodiments, radio front end circuitry and/or antenna 1011 may beconsidered an interface.

As illustrated, interface 1014 comprises radio front end circuitry 1012and antenna 1011. Radio front end circuitry 1012 comprise one or morefilters 1018 and amplifiers 1016. Radio front end circuitry 1014 isconnected to antenna 1011 and processing circuitry 1020, and isconfigured to condition signals communicated between antenna 1011 andprocessing circuitry 1020. Radio front end circuitry 1012 may be coupledto or a part of antenna 1011. In some embodiments, WD 1010 may notinclude separate radio front end circuitry 1012; rather, processingcircuitry 1020 may comprise radio front end circuitry and may beconnected to antenna 1011. Similarly, in some embodiments, some or allof RF transceiver circuitry 1022 may be considered a part of interface1014. Radio front end circuitry 1012 may receive digital data that is tobe sent out to other network nodes or WDs via a wireless connection.Radio front end circuitry 1012 may convert the digital data into a radiosignal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using acombination of filters 1018 and/or amplifiers 1016. The radio signal maythen be transmitted via antenna 1011. Similarly, when receiving data,antenna 1011 may collect radio signals which are then converted intodigital data by radio front end circuitry 1012. The digital data may bepassed to processing circuitry 1020. In other embodiments, the interfacemay comprise different components and/or different combinations ofcomponents.

Processing circuitry 1020 may comprise a combination of one or more of amicroprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit,digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, fieldprogrammable gate array, or any other suitable computing device,resource, or combination of hardware, software, and/or encoded logicoperable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other WD 1010components, such as device readable medium 1030, WD 1010 functionality.Such functionality may include providing any of the various wirelessfeatures or benefits discussed herein. For example, processing circuitry1020 may execute instructions stored in device readable medium 1030 orin memory within processing circuitry 1020 to provide the functionalitydisclosed herein.

As illustrated, processing circuitry 1020 includes one or more of RFtransceiver circuitry 1022, baseband processing circuitry 1024, andapplication processing circuitry 1026. In other embodiments, theprocessing circuitry may comprise different components and/or differentcombinations of components. In certain embodiments processing circuitry1020 of WD 1010 may comprise a SOC. In some embodiments, RF transceivercircuitry 1022, baseband processing circuitry 1024, and applicationprocessing circuitry 1026 may be on separate chips or sets of chips. Inalternative embodiments, part or all of baseband processing circuitry1024 and application processing circuitry 1026 may be combined into onechip or set of chips, and RF transceiver circuitry 1022 may be on aseparate chip or set of chips. In still alternative embodiments, part orall of RF transceiver circuitry 1022 and baseband processing circuitry1024 may be on the same chip or set of chips, and application processingcircuitry 1026 may be on a separate chip or set of chips. In yet otheralternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry 1022,baseband processing circuitry 1024, and application processing circuitry1026 may be combined in the same chip or set of chips. In someembodiments, RF transceiver circuitry 1022 may be a part of interface1014. RF transceiver circuitry 1022 may condition RF signals forprocessing circuitry 1020.

In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality describedherein as being performed by a WD may be provided by processingcircuitry 1020 executing instructions stored on device readable medium1030, which in certain embodiments may be a computer-readable storagemedium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality maybe provided by processing circuitry 1020 without executing instructionsstored on a separate or discrete device readable storage medium, such asin a hard-wired manner In any of those particular embodiments, whetherexecuting instructions stored on a device readable storage medium ornot, processing circuitry 1020 can be configured to perform thedescribed functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality arenot limited to processing circuitry 1020 alone or to other components ofWD 1010, but are enjoyed by WD 1010 as a whole, and/or by end users andthe wireless network generally.

Processing circuitry 1020 may be configured to perform any determining,calculating, or similar operations (e.g., certain obtaining operations)described herein as being performed by a WD. These operations, asperformed by processing circuitry 1020, may include processinginformation obtained by processing circuitry 1020 by, for example,converting the obtained information into other information, comparingthe obtained information or converted information to information storedby WD 1010, and/or performing one or more operations based on theobtained information or converted information, and as a result of saidprocessing making a determination.

Device readable medium 1030 may be operable to store a computer program,software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code,tables, etc. and/or other instructions capable of being executed byprocessing circuitry 1020. Device readable medium 1030 may includecomputer memory (e.g., Random Access Memory (RAM) or Read Only Memory(ROM)), mass storage media (e.g., a hard disk), removable storage media(e.g., a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and/or anyother volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device readable and/orcomputer executable memory devices that store information, data, and/orinstructions that may be used by processing circuitry 1020. In someembodiments, processing circuitry 1020 and device readable medium 1030may be considered to be integrated.

User interface equipment 1032 may provide components that allow for ahuman user to interact with WD 1010. Such interaction may be of manyforms, such as visual, audial, tactile, etc. User interface equipment1032 may be operable to produce output to the user and to allow the userto provide input to WD 1010. The type of interaction may vary dependingon the type of user interface equipment 1032 installed in WD 1010. Forexample, if WD 1010 is a smart phone, the interaction may be via a touchscreen; if WD 1010 is a smart meter, the interaction may be through ascreen that provides usage (e.g., the number of gallons used) or aspeaker that provides an audible alert (e.g., if smoke is detected).User interface equipment 1032 may include input interfaces, devices andcircuits, and output interfaces, devices and circuits. User interfaceequipment 1032 is configured to allow input of information into WD 1010,and is connected to processing circuitry 1020 to allow processingcircuitry 1020 to process the input information. User interfaceequipment 1032 may include, for example, a microphone, a proximity orother sensor, keys/buttons, a touch display, one or more cameras, a USBport, or other input circuitry. User interface equipment 1032 is alsoconfigured to allow output of information from WD 1010, and to allowprocessing circuitry 1020 to output information from WD 1010. Userinterface equipment 1032 may include, for example, a speaker, a display,vibrating circuitry, a USB port, a headphone interface, or other outputcircuitry. Using one or more input and output interfaces, devices, andcircuits, of user interface equipment 1032, WD 1010 may communicate withend users and/or the wireless network, and allow them to benefit fromthe functionality described herein.

Auxiliary equipment 1034 is operable to provide more specificfunctionality which may not be generally performed by WDs. This maycomprise specialized sensors for doing measurements for variouspurposes, interfaces for additional types of communication such as wiredcommunications etc. The inclusion and type of components of auxiliaryequipment 1034 may vary depending on the embodiment and/or scenario.

Power source 1036 may, in some embodiments, be in the form of a batteryor battery pack. Other types of power sources, such as an external powersource (e.g., an electricity outlet), photovoltaic devices or powercells, may also be used. WD 1010 may further comprise power circuitry1037 for delivering power from power source 1036 to the various parts ofWD 1010 which need power from power source 1036 to carry out anyfunctionality described or indicated herein. Power circuitry 1037 may incertain embodiments comprise power management circuitry. Power circuitry1037 may additionally or alternatively be operable to receive power froman external power source; in which case WD 1010 may be connectable tothe external power source (such as an electricity outlet) via inputcircuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Powercircuitry 1037 may also in certain embodiments be operable to deliverpower from an external power source to power source 1036. This may be,for example, for the charging of power source 1036. Power circuitry 1037may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to thepower from power source 1036 to make the power suitable for therespective components of WD 1010 to which power is supplied.

FIG. 11 is a schematic showing a user equipment in accordance with someembodiments.

FIG. 11 illustrates one embodiment of a UE in accordance with variousaspects described herein. As used herein, a user equipment or UE may notnecessarily have a user in the sense of a human user who owns and/oroperates the relevant device. Instead, a UE may represent a device thatis intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but which maynot, or which may not initially, be associated with a specific humanuser (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller). Alternatively, a UE mayrepresent a device that is not intended for sale to, or operation by, anend user but which may be associated with or operated for the benefit ofa user (e.g., a smart power meter). UE 1100 may be any UE identified bythe 3^(rd) Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), including a NB-IoT UE,a machine type communication (MTC) UE, and/or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE.UE 1100, as illustrated in FIG. 11 , is one example of a WD configuredfor communication in accordance with one or more communication standardspromulgated by the 3^(rd) Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), such as3GPP's GSM, UMTS, LTE, and/or 5G standards. As mentioned previously, theterm WD and UE may be used interchangeable. Accordingly, although FIG.11 is a UE, the components discussed herein are equally applicable to aWD, and vice-versa.

In FIG. 11 , UE 1100 includes processing circuitry 1101 that isoperatively coupled to input/output interface 1105, radio frequency (RF)interface 1109, network connection interface 1111, memory 1115 includingrandom access memory (RAM) 1117, read-only memory (ROM) 1119, andstorage medium 1121 or the like, communication subsystem 1131, powersource 1133, and/or any other component, or any combination thereof.Storage medium 1121 includes operating system 1123, application program1125, and data 1127. In other embodiments, storage medium 1121 mayinclude other similar types of information. Certain UEs may utilize allof the components shown in FIG. 11 , or only a subset of the components.The level of integration between the components may vary from one UE toanother UE. Further, certain UEs may contain multiple instances of acomponent, such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers,transmitters, receivers, etc.

In FIG. 11 , processing circuitry 1101 may be configured to processcomputer instructions and data. Processing circuitry 1101 may beconfigured to implement any sequential state machine operative toexecute machine instructions stored as machine-readable computerprograms in the memory, such as one or more hardware-implemented statemachines (e.g., in discrete logic, FPGA, ASIC, etc.); programmable logictogether with appropriate firmware; one or more stored program,general-purpose processors, such as a microprocessor or Digital SignalProcessor (DSP), together with appropriate software; or any combinationof the above. For example, the processing circuitry 1101 may include twocentral processing units (CPUs). Data may be information in a formsuitable for use by a computer.

In the depicted embodiment, input/output interface 1105 may beconfigured to provide a communication interface to an input device,output device, or input and output device. UE 1100 may be configured touse an output device via input/output interface 1105. An output devicemay use the same type of interface port as an input device. For example,a USB port may be used to provide input to and output from UE 1100. Theoutput device may be a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, amonitor, a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smartcard, another outputdevice, or any combination thereof. UE 1100 may be configured to use aninput device via input/output interface 1105 to allow a user to captureinformation into UE 1100. The input device may include a touch-sensitiveor presence-sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, adigital video camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, amouse, a trackball, a directional pad, a trackpad, a scroll wheel, asmartcard, and the like. The presence-sensitive display may include acapacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from a user. Asensor may be, for instance, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a tiltsensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximitysensor, another like sensor, or any combination thereof. For example,the input device may be an accelerometer, a magnetometer, a digitalcamera, a microphone, and an optical sensor.

In FIG. 11 , RF interface 1109 may be configured to provide acommunication interface to RF components such as a transmitter, areceiver, and an antenna. Network connection interface 1111 may beconfigured to provide a communication interface to network 1143 a.Network 1143 a may encompass wired and/or wireless networks such as alocal-area network (LAN), a wide-area network (WAN), a computer network,a wireless network, a telecommunications network, another like networkor any combination thereof. For example, network 1143 a may comprise aWi-Fi network. Network connection interface 1111 may be configured toinclude a receiver and a transmitter interface used to communicate withone or more other devices over a communication network according to oneor more communication protocols, such as Ethernet, TCP/IP, SONET, ATM,or the like. Network connection interface 1111 may implement receiverand transmitter functionality appropriate to the communication networklinks (e.g., optical, electrical, and the like). The transmitter andreceiver functions may share circuit components, software or firmware,or alternatively may be implemented separately.

RAM 1117 may be configured to interface via bus 1102 to processingcircuitry 1101 to provide storage or caching of data or computerinstructions during the execution of software programs such as theoperating system, application programs, and device drivers. ROM 1119 maybe configured to provide computer instructions or data to processingcircuitry 1101. For example, ROM 1119 may be configured to storeinvariant low-level system code or data for basic system functions suchas basic input and output (I/O), startup, or reception of keystrokesfrom a keyboard that are stored in a non-volatile memory. Storage medium1121 may be configured to include memory such as RAM, ROM, programmableread-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magneticdisks, optical disks, floppy disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, orflash drives. In one example, storage medium 1121 may be configured toinclude operating system 1123, application program 1125 such as a webbrowser application, a widget or gadget engine or another application,and data file 1127. Storage medium 1121 may store, for use by UE 1100,any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations ofoperating systems.

Storage medium 1121 may be configured to include a number of physicaldrive units, such as redundant array of independent disks (RAID), floppydisk drive, flash memory, USB flash drive, external hard disk drive,thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, high-density digital versatile disc(HD-DVD) optical disc drive, internal hard disk drive, Blu-Ray opticaldisc drive, holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical disc drive,external mini-dual in-line memory module (DIMM), synchronous dynamicrandom access memory (SDRAM), external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcardmemory such as a subscriber identity module or a removable user identity(SIM/RUIM) module, other memory, or any combination thereof. Storagemedium 1121 may allow UE 1100 to access computer-executableinstructions, application programs or the like, stored on transitory ornon-transitory memory media, to off-load data, or to upload data. Anarticle of manufacture, such as one utilizing a communication system maybe tangibly embodied in storage medium 1121, which may comprise a devicereadable medium.

In FIG. 11 , processing circuitry 1101 may be configured to communicatewith network 1143 b using communication subsystem 1131. Network 1143 aand network 1143 b may be the same network or networks or differentnetwork or networks. Communication subsystem 1131 may be configured toinclude one or more transceivers used to communicate with network 1143b. For example, communication subsystem 1131 may be configured toinclude one or more transceivers used to communicate with one or moreremote transceivers of another device capable of wireless communicationsuch as another WD, UE, or base station of a radio access network (RAN)according to one or more communication protocols, such as IEEE 802.11,CDMA, WCDMA, GSM, LTE, UTRAN, WiMax, or the like. Each transceiver mayinclude transmitter 1133 and/or receiver 1135 to implement transmitteror receiver functionality, respectively, appropriate to the RAN links(e.g., frequency allocations and the like). Further, transmitter 1133and receiver 1135 of each transceiver may share circuit components,software or firmware, or alternatively may be implemented separately.

In the illustrated embodiment, the communication functions ofcommunication subsystem 1131 may include data communication, voicecommunication, multimedia communication, short-range communications suchas Bluetooth, near-field communication, location-based communicationsuch as the use of the global positioning system (GPS) to determine alocation, another like communication function, or any combinationthereof. For example, communication subsystem 1131 may include cellularcommunication, Wi-Fi communication, Bluetooth communication, and GPScommunication. Network 1143 b may encompass wired and/or wirelessnetworks such as a local-area network (LAN), a wide-area network (WAN),a computer network, a wireless network, a telecommunications network,another like network or any combination thereof. For example, network1143 b may be a cellular network, a Wi-Fi network, and/or a near-fieldnetwork. Power source 1113 may be configured to provide alternatingcurrent (AC) or direct current (DC) power to components of UE 1100.

The features, benefits and/or functions described herein may beimplemented in one of the components of UE 1100 or partitioned acrossmultiple components of UE 1100. Further, the features, benefits, and/orfunctions described herein may be implemented in any combination ofhardware, software or firmware. In one example, communication subsystem1131 may be configured to include any of the components describedherein. Further, processing circuitry 1101 may be configured tocommunicate with any of such components over bus 1102. In anotherexample, any of such components may be represented by programinstructions stored in memory that when executed by processing circuitry1101 perform the corresponding functions described herein. In anotherexample, the functionality of any of such components may be partitionedbetween processing circuitry 1101 and communication subsystem 1131. Inanother example, the non-computationally intensive functions of any ofsuch components may be implemented in software or firmware and thecomputationally intensive functions may be implemented in hardware.

FIG. 12 is a schematic showing a virtualization environment inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 12 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a virtualizationenvironment 1200 in which functions implemented by some embodiments maybe virtualized. In the present context, virtualizing means creatingvirtual versions of apparatuses or devices which may includevirtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices and networkingresources. As used herein, virtualization can be applied to a node(e.g., a virtualized base station or a virtualized radio access node) orto a device (e.g., a UE, a wireless device or any other type ofcommunication device) or components thereof and relates to animplementation in which at least a portion of the functionality isimplemented as one or more virtual components (e.g., via one or moreapplications, components, functions, virtual machines or containersexecuting on one or more physical processing nodes in one or morenetworks).

In some embodiments, some or all of the functions described herein maybe implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtualmachines implemented in one or more virtual environments 1200 hosted byone or more of hardware nodes 1230. Further, in embodiments in which thevirtual node is not a radio access node or does not require radioconnectivity (e.g., a core network node), then the network node may beentirely virtualized.

The functions may be implemented by one or more applications 1220 (whichmay alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances,network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.)operative to implement some of the features, functions, and/or benefitsof some of the embodiments disclosed herein. Applications 1220 are runin virtualization environment 1200 which provides hardware 1230comprising processing circuitry 1260 and memory 1290. Memory 1290contains instructions 1295 executable by processing circuitry 1260whereby application 1220 is operative to provide one or more of thefeatures, benefits, and/or functions disclosed herein.

Virtualization environment 1200, comprises general-purpose orspecial-purpose network hardware devices 1230 comprising a set of one ormore processors or processing circuitry 1260, which may be commercialoff-the-shelf (COTS) processors, dedicated Application SpecificIntegrated Circuits (ASICs), or any other type of processing circuitryincluding digital or analog hardware components or special purposeprocessors. Each hardware device may comprise memory 1290-1 which may benon-persistent memory for temporarily storing instructions 1295 orsoftware executed by processing circuitry 1260. Each hardware device maycomprise one or more network interface controllers (NICs) 1270, alsoknown as network interface cards, which include physical networkinterface 1280. Each hardware device may also include non-transitory,persistent, machine-readable storage media 1290-2 having stored thereinsoftware 1295 and/or instructions executable by processing circuitry1260. Software 1295 may include any type of software including softwarefor instantiating one or more virtualization layers 1250 (also referredto as hypervisors), software to execute virtual machines 1240 as well assoftware allowing it to execute functions, features and/or benefitsdescribed in relation with some embodiments described herein.

Virtual machines 1240, comprise virtual processing, virtual memory,virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by acorresponding virtualization layer 1250 or hypervisor. Differentembodiments of the instance of virtual appliance 1220 may be implementedon one or more of virtual machines 1240, and the implementations may bemade in different ways.

During operation, processing circuitry 1260 executes software 1295 toinstantiate the hypervisor or virtualization layer 1250, which maysometimes be referred to as a virtual machine monitor (VMM).Virtualization layer 1250 may present a virtual operating platform thatappears like networking hardware to virtual machine 1240.

As shown in FIG. 12 , hardware 1230 may be a standalone network nodewith generic or specific components. Hardware 1230 may comprise antenna12225 and may implement some functions via virtualization.Alternatively, hardware 1230 may be part of a larger cluster of hardware(e.g. such as in a data center or customer premise equipment (CPE))where many hardware nodes work together and are managed via managementand orchestration (MANO) 12100, which, among others, oversees lifecyclemanagement of applications 1220.

Virtualization of the hardware is in some contexts referred to asnetwork function virtualization (NFV). NFV may be used to consolidatemany network equipment types onto industry standard high volume serverhardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be locatedin data centers, and customer premise equipment.

In the context of NFV, virtual machine 1240 may be a softwareimplementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they wereexecuting on a physical, non-virtualized machine. Each of virtualmachines 1240, and that part of hardware 1230 that executes that virtualmachine, be it hardware dedicated to that virtual machine and/orhardware shared by that virtual machine with others of the virtualmachines 1240, forms a separate virtual network elements (VNE).

Still in the context of NFV, Virtual Network Function (VNF) isresponsible for handling specific network functions that run in one ormore virtual machines 1240 on top of hardware networking infrastructure1230 and corresponds to application 1220 in FIG. 12 .

In some embodiments, one or more radio units 12200 that each include oneor more transmitters 12220 and one or more receivers 12210 may becoupled to one or more antennas 12225. Radio units 12200 may communicatedirectly with hardware nodes 1230 via one or more appropriate networkinterfaces and may be used in combination with the virtual components toprovide a virtual node with radio capabilities, such as a radio accessnode or a base station.

In some embodiments, some signalling can be effected with the use ofcontrol system 12230 which may alternatively be used for communicationbetween the hardware nodes 1230 and radio units 12200.

FIG. 13 is a schematic showing a telecommunication network connected viaan intermediate network to a host computer in accordance with someembodiments.

With reference to FIG. 13 , in accordance with an embodiment, acommunication system includes telecommunication network 1310, such as a3GPP-type cellular network, which comprises access network 1311, such asa radio access network, and core network 1314. Access network 1311comprises a plurality of base stations 1312 a, 1312 b, 1312 c, such asNBs, eNBs, gNBs or other types of wireless access points, each defininga corresponding coverage area 1313 a, 1313 b, 1313 c. Each base station1312 a, 1312 b, 1312 c is connectable to core network 1314 over a wiredor wireless connection 1315. A first UE 1391 located in coverage area1313 c is configured to wirelessly connect to, or be paged by, thecorresponding base station 1312 c. A second UE 1392 in coverage area1313 a is wirelessly connectable to the corresponding base station 1312a. While a plurality of UEs 1391, 1392 are illustrated in this example,the disclosed embodiments are equally applicable to a situation where asole UE is in the coverage area or where a sole UE is connecting to thecorresponding base station 1312.

Telecommunication network 1310 is itself connected to host computer1330, which may be embodied in the hardware and/or software of astandalone server, a cloud-implemented server, a distributed server oras processing resources in a server farm. Host computer 1330 may beunder the ownership or control of a service provider, or may be operatedby the service provider or on behalf of the service provider.Connections 1321 and 1322 between telecommunication network 1310 andhost computer 1330 may extend directly from core network 1314 to hostcomputer 1330 or may go via an optional intermediate network 1320.Intermediate network 1320 may be one of, or a combination of more thanone of, a public, private or hosted network; intermediate network 1320,if any, may be a backbone network or the Internet; in particular,intermediate network 1320 may comprise two or more sub-networks (notshown).

The communication system of FIG. 13 as a whole enables connectivitybetween the connected UEs 1391, 1392 and host computer 1330. Theconnectivity may be described as an over-the-top (OTT) connection 1350.Host computer 1330 and the connected UEs 1391, 1392 are configured tocommunicate data and/or signaling via OTT connection 1350, using accessnetwork 1311, core network 1314, any intermediate network 1320 andpossible further infrastructure (not shown) as intermediaries. OTTconnection 1350 may be transparent in the sense that the participatingcommunication devices through which OTT connection 1350 passes areunaware of routing of uplink and downlink communications. For example,base station 1312 may not or need not be informed about the past routingof an incoming downlink communication with data originating from hostcomputer 1330 to be forwarded (e.g., handed over) to a connected UE1391. Similarly, base station 1312 need not be aware of the futurerouting of an outgoing uplink communication originating from the UE 1391towards the host computer 1330.

FIG. 14 is a schematic showing a host computer communicating via a basestation with a user equipment over a partially wireless connection inaccordance with some embodiments.

Example implementations, in accordance with an embodiment, of the UE,base station and host computer discussed in the preceding paragraphswill now be described with reference to FIG. 14 . In communicationsystem 1400, host computer 1410 comprises hardware 1415 includingcommunication interface 1416 configured to set up and maintain a wiredor wireless connection with an interface of a different communicationdevice of communication system 1400. Host computer 1410 furthercomprises processing circuitry 1418, which may have storage and/orprocessing capabilities. In particular, processing circuitry 1418 maycomprise one or more programmable processors, application-specificintegrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations ofthese (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. Host computer 1410further comprises software 1411, which is stored in or accessible byhost computer 1410 and executable by processing circuitry 1418. Software1411 includes host application 1412. Host application 1412 may beoperable to provide a service to a remote user, such as UE 1430connecting via OTT connection 1450 terminating at UE 1430 and hostcomputer 1410. In providing the service to the remote user, hostapplication 1412 may provide user data which is transmitted using OTTconnection 1450.

Communication system 1400 further includes base station 1420 provided ina telecommunication system and comprising hardware 1425 enabling it tocommunicate with host computer 1410 and with UE 1430. Hardware 1425 mayinclude communication interface 1426 for setting up and maintaining awired or wireless connection with an interface of a differentcommunication device of communication system 1400, as well as radiointerface 1427 for setting up and maintaining at least wirelessconnection 1470 with UE 1430 located in a coverage area (not shown inFIG. 14 ) served by base station 1420. Communication interface 1426 maybe configured to facilitate connection 1460 to host computer 1410.Connection 1460 may be direct or it may pass through a core network (notshown in FIG. 14 ) of the telecommunication system and/or through one ormore intermediate networks outside the telecommunication system. In theembodiment shown, hardware 1425 of base station 1420 further includesprocessing circuitry 1428, which may comprise one or more programmableprocessors, application-specific integrated circuits, field programmablegate arrays or combinations of these (not shown) adapted to executeinstructions. Base station 1420 further has software 1421 storedinternally or accessible via an external connection.

Communication system 1400 further includes UE 1430 already referred to.Its hardware 1435 may include radio interface 1437 configured to set upand maintain wireless connection 1470 with a base station serving acoverage area in which UE 1430 is currently located. Hardware 1435 of UE1430 further includes processing circuitry 1438, which may comprise oneor more programmable processors, application-specific integratedcircuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations of these (notshown) adapted to execute instructions. UE 1430 further comprisessoftware 1431, which is stored in or accessible by UE 1430 andexecutable by processing circuitry 1438. Software 1431 includes clientapplication 1432. Client application 1432 may be operable to provide aservice to a human or non-human user via UE 1430, with the support ofhost computer 1410. In host computer 1410, an executing host application1412 may communicate with the executing client application 1432 via OTTconnection 1450 terminating at UE 1430 and host computer 1410. Inproviding the service to the user, client application 1432 may receiverequest data from host application 1412 and provide user data inresponse to the request data. OTT connection 1450 may transfer both therequest data and the user data. Client application 1432 may interactwith the user to generate the user data that it provides.

It is noted that host computer 1410, base station 1420 and UE 1430illustrated in FIG. 14 may be similar or identical to host computer1330, one of base stations 1312 a, 1312 b, 1312 c and one of UEs 1391,1392 of FIG. 13 , respectively. This is to say, the inner workings ofthese entities may be as shown in FIG. 14 and independently, thesurrounding network topology may be that of FIG. 13 .

In FIG. 14 , OTT connection 1450 has been drawn abstractly to illustratethe communication between host computer 1410 and UE 1430 via basestation 1420, without explicit reference to any intermediary devices andthe precise routing of messages via these devices. Networkinfrastructure may determine the routing, which it may be configured tohide from UE 1430 or from the service provider operating host computer1410, or both. While OTT connection 1450 is active, the networkinfrastructure may further take decisions by which it dynamicallychanges the routing (e.g., on the basis of load balancing considerationor reconfiguration of the network).

Wireless connection 1470 between UE 1430 and base station 1420 is inaccordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughoutthis disclosure. One or more of the various embodiments improve theperformance of OTT services provided to UE 1430 using OTT connection1450, in which wireless connection 1470 forms the last segment. Moreprecisely, the teachings of these embodiments may improve the latency,and power consumption for a reactivation of the network connection, andthereby provide benefits, such as reduced user waiting time, enhancedrate control.

A measurement procedure may be provided for the purpose of monitoringdata rate, latency and other factors on which the one or moreembodiments improve. There may further be an optional networkfunctionality for reconfiguring OTT connection 1450 between hostcomputer 1410 and UE 1430, in response to variations in the measurementresults. The measurement procedure and/or the network functionality forreconfiguring OTT connection 1450 may be implemented in software 1411and hardware 1415 of host computer 1410 or in software 1431 and hardware1435 of UE 1430, or both. In embodiments, sensors (not shown) may bedeployed in or in association with communication devices through whichOTT connection 1450 passes; the sensors may participate in themeasurement procedure by supplying values of the monitored quantitiesexemplified above, or supplying values of other physical quantities fromwhich software 1411, 1431 may compute or estimate the monitoredquantities. The reconfiguring of OTT connection 1450 may include messageformat, retransmission settings, preferred routing etc.; thereconfiguring need not affect base station 1420, and it may be unknownor imperceptible to base station 1420. Such procedures andfunctionalities may be known and practiced in the art. In certainembodiments, measurements may involve proprietary UE signalingfacilitating host computer 1410's measurements of throughput,propagation times, latency and the like. The measurements may beimplemented in that software 1411 and 1431 causes messages to betransmitted, in particular empty or ‘dummy’ messages, using OTTconnection 1450 while it monitors propagation times, errors etc.

FIG. 15 is a schematic showing methods implemented in a communicationsystem including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment inaccordance with some embodiments.

The communication system includes a host computer, a base station and aUE which may be those described with reference to FIGS. 13 and 14 . Forsimplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to FIG. 15will be included in this section. In step 1510, the host computerprovides user data. In substep 1511 (which may be optional) of step1510, the host computer provides the user data by executing a hostapplication. In step 1520, the host computer initiates a transmissioncarrying the user data to the UE. In step 1530 (which may be optional),the base station transmits to the UE the user data which was carried inthe transmission that the host computer initiated, in accordance withthe teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure.In step 1540 (which may also be optional), the UE executes a clientapplication associated with the host application executed by the hostcomputer.

FIG. 16 is a schematic showing methods implemented in a communicationsystem including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment inaccordance with some embodiments.

The communication system includes a host computer, a base station and aUE which may be those described with reference to FIGS. 13 and 14 . Forsimplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to FIG. 16will be included in this section. In step 1610 of the method, the hostcomputer provides user data. In an optional substep (not shown) the hostcomputer provides the user data by executing a host application. In step1620, the host computer initiates a transmission carrying the user datato the UE. The transmission may pass via the base station, in accordancewith the teachings of the embodiments described throughout thisdisclosure. In step 1630 (which may be optional), the UE receives theuser data carried in the transmission.

FIG. 17 is a schematic showing methods implemented in a communicationsystem including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment inaccordance with some embodiments.

The communication system includes a host computer, a base station and aUE which may be those described with reference to FIGS. 13 and 14 . Forsimplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to FIG. 17will be included in this section. In step 1710 (which may be optional),the UE receives input data provided by the host computer. Additionallyor alternatively, in step 1720, the UE provides user data. In substep1721 (which may be optional) of step 1720, the UE provides the user databy executing a client application. In substep 1711 (which may beoptional) of step 1710, the UE executes a client application whichprovides the user data in reaction to the received input data providedby the host computer. In providing the user data, the executed clientapplication may further consider user input received from the user.Regardless of the specific manner in which the user data was provided,the UE initiates, in substep 1730 (which may be optional), transmissionof the user data to the host computer. In step 1740 of the method, thehost computer receives the user data transmitted from the UE, inaccordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughoutthis disclosure.

FIG. 18 is a schematic showing methods implemented in a communicationsystem including a host computer, a base station and a user equipment inaccordance with some embodiments.

The communication system includes a host computer, a base station and aUE which may be those described with reference to FIGS. 13 and 14 . Forsimplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to FIG. 18will be included in this section. In step 1810 (which may be optional),in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughoutthis disclosure, the base station receives user data from the UE. Instep 1820 (which may be optional), the base station initiatestransmission of the received user data to the host computer. In step1830 (which may be optional), the host computer receives the user datacarried in the transmission initiated by the base station.

In general, the various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosuremay be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software,logic or any combination thereof. For example, some aspects may beimplemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented infirmware or software that may be executed by a controller,microprocessor or other computing device, although the disclosure is notlimited thereto. While various aspects of the exemplary embodiments ofthis disclosure may be illustrated and described as block diagrams, flowcharts, or using some other pictorial representation, it is wellunderstood that these blocks, apparatus, systems, techniques or methodsdescribed herein may be implemented in, as non-limiting examples,hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, generalpurpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or somecombination thereof.

As such, it should be appreciated that at least some aspects of theexemplary embodiments of the disclosure may be practiced in variouscomponents such as integrated circuit chips and modules. It should thusbe appreciated that the exemplary embodiments of this disclosure may berealized in an apparatus that is embodied as an integrated circuit,where the integrated circuit may include circuitry (as well as possiblyfirmware) for embodying at least one or more of a data processor, adigital signal processor, baseband circuitry and radio frequencycircuitry that are configurable so as to operate in accordance with theexemplary embodiments of this disclosure.

It should be appreciated that at least some aspects of the exemplaryembodiments of the disclosure may be embodied in computer-executableinstructions, such as in one or more program modules, executed by one ormore computers or other devices. Generally, program modules includeroutines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. thatperform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data typeswhen executed by a processor in a computer or other device. The computerexecutable instructions may be stored on a computer readable medium suchas a hard disk, optical disk, removable storage media, solid statememory, RAM, etc. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art,the functionality of the program modules may be combined or distributedas desired in various embodiments. In addition, the functionality may beembodied in whole or in part in firmware or hardware equivalents such asintegrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), and thelike.

The present disclosure includes any novel feature or combination offeatures disclosed herein either explicitly or any generalizationthereof. Various modifications and adaptations to the foregoingexemplary embodiments of this disclosure may become apparent to thoseskilled in the relevant arts in view of the foregoing description, whenread in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. However, any and allmodifications will still fall within the scope of the non-limiting andexemplary embodiments of this disclosure.

Exemplary embodiments herein have been described above with reference toblock diagrams and flowchart illustrations of methods and apparatuses.It will be understood that each block of the block diagrams andflowchart illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the blockdiagrams and flowchart illustrations, respectively, can be implementedby various means including computer program instructions. These computerprogram instructions may be loaded onto a general purpose computer,special purpose computer, or other programmable data processingapparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions which executeon the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus createmeans for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart block orblocks.

Further, while operations are depicted in a particular order, thisshould not be understood as requiring that such operations be performedin the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that allillustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. Incertain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may beadvantageous. Likewise, while several specific implementation detailsare contained in the above discussions, these should not be construed aslimitations on the scope of the subject matter described herein, butrather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particularembodiments. Certain features that are described in the context ofseparate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a singleembodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in thecontext of a single embodiment may also be implemented in multipleembodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination.

While this specification contains many specific implementation details,these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of anyimplementation or of what may be claimed, but rather as descriptions offeatures that may be specific to particular embodiments of particularimplementations. Certain features that are described in thisspecification in the context of separate embodiments can also beimplemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, variousfeatures that are described in the context of a single embodiment canalso be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in anysuitable sub-combination. Moreover, although features may be describedabove as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed assuch, one or more features from a claimed combination can in some casesbe excised from the combination, and the claimed combination may bedirected to a sub-combination or variation of a sub-combination.

It will be obvious to a person skilled in the art that, as thetechnology advances, the inventive concept can be implemented in variousways. The above described embodiments are given for describing ratherthan limiting the disclosure, and it is to be understood thatmodifications and variations may be resorted to without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the disclosure as those skilled in the artreadily understand. Such modifications and variations are considered tobe within the scope of the disclosure and the appended claims. Theprotection scope of the disclosure is defined by the accompanyingclaims.

1. A method performed at a terminal device, comprising: predicting abuffer size associated with data to be transmitted; predicting aprobability associated with the predicted buffer size; transmitting abuffer state report, BSR, including the predicted buffer size to anetwork node; receiving a grant for the data to be transmitted; andtransmitting the data.
 2. (canceled)
 3. The method according to claim 1,wherein the predicting is based on at least one of: a size, a type, acontent, or a required transmission rate of the data; input data from anapplication behaviour, a user behaviour, a radio condition, or a trafficbehaviour.
 4. (canceled)
 5. (canceled)
 6. (canceled)
 7. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the BSR includes the probability.
 8. Themethod according to claim 7, wherein the terminal device transmits theBSR, when the probability is equal to or greater than a threshold. 9.(canceled)
 10. The method according to claim 1, wherein the predictingis made by an artificial intelligence algorithm.
 11. (canceled)
 12. Themethod according to claim 1, further comprising: receiving a BSRprediction configuration for the terminal device, or for a plurality ofterminal devices.
 13. (canceled)
 14. (canceled)
 15. (canceled) 16.(canceled)
 17. The method according to claim 1, wherein the BSR isconfigured for a logic channel, or for a logic channel group; andwherein the BSR is configured based on a priority of the logic channelor the logical channel group.
 18. (canceled)
 19. The method according toclaim 1, wherein the BSR further comprises a buffer size associated withdata assigned to a logic channel.
 20. The method according to claim 1,further comprising: reporting a capability of the terminal device forsupporting the BSR.
 21. The method according to claim 1, wherein the BSRfurther comprises: a predicted time point or time window fortransmitting the data.
 22. The method according to claim 21, wherein theBSR further comprises: a probability of the predicted time point or timewindow for transmitting the data.
 23. The method according to claim 1,wherein the predicted buffer size is included in a medium accesscontrol, MAC, control element, CE.
 24. The method according to claim 1,further comprising: receiving an indication for whether the BSRincluding the predicted buffer size is enabled or disabled.
 25. Themethod according to claim 24, further comprising: transmitting a bufferstate report, BSR, including a buffer size associated with data assignedto a logical channel of the terminal device, when the BSR including thepredicted buffer size is disabled.
 26. The method according to claim 24,wherein the indication comprises a threshold for a probability of thepredicted buffer size.
 27. The method according to claim 1, furthercomprising: starting a timer after transmitting the BSR including thepredicted buffer size; and/or stopping the timer after receiving thegrant.
 28. The method according to claim 27, further comprising:restarting the timer, if the predicted buffer size is updated and theBSR including the predicted buffer size is retransmitted and/orretransmitting the predicted BSR, when the timer expires. 29.-61.(canceled)
 62. A terminal device, comprising: a processor; and a memory,the memory containing instructions executable by the processor, wherebythe terminal device is operative to: predict a buffer size associatedwith data to be transmitted; transmit a buffer state report, BSR,including the predicted buffer size to a network node.
 63. (canceled)64. A network node, comprising: a processor; and a memory, the memorycontaining instructions executable by the processor, whereby the networknode is operative to: receive a buffer state report, BSR, including apredicted buffer size associated with data to be received from aterminal device; wherein the BSR further includes a probabilityassociated with the predicted buffer size predicted by the terminaldevice; transmit a grant for the data according to the received BSR. 65.(canceled)
 66. (canceled)